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REPORT 


Proceedings of a Conference 


of the 


NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD 


for 


Fuels and Structural Materials 


Held at the Oriental Hotel, Manhattan Beach, 

New York City. 


August 10 and 11, 1906. 


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Transfer 

JUL 16 1920 









GENERAL SCHEDULE OE CONFERENCE 


Page 1-182 


Aug. 10, Morning Session 1-41 

Members present 

Boiler Division Work undertaken or accomplished at 
St. Louis:Report of L.P.Breckenridge (accompanying 
his paper, q.v.), and discussion. 

Aug. 10, Afternoon Session 41-110 

Boiler Division: Suggestions for future work 

Gas Producer Division:Remarks preliminary to Report 
by R. H. Eernald. 

Aug. 10, Evening Session 110-136 

Gas Producer Division: Report by R. K. Fernald (Ac¬ 
companying his paper, q.v.), and discussion 

Denatured Alcohol and Gasoline, preliminary discus¬ 
sion. 

Aug. 11, Morning Session 137-180 

The following subjects: 

Denatured Alcohol and Gasoline 

Fuel-Testing, detailed presentation 

Moisture in Coal 

Prevention of Mine Accidents 

Wasteful Working of Mines. 

PAPERS BY PROFESSORS BRECKEKRIDGE AMD FERNALD 

Appendix, following page 182. 

"Matters proposed for presentation at the Hew 
York conference of Aug.lOth-llth, 1906," by 
L. P.Breckenridge, Engineer in Charge of the 
Boiler Division Appendix, second part, pp. 1-10 

"Brief outline of the v/ork of the Gas Producer 
Division, and Proposed Lines for Future In¬ 
vestigations, " by R. H. Fernald, Endingg 
Engineer in Charge of the Gas Producer Division 







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INDEX 


Boiler Division 

Work undertaken or accomplished at St. Louis (Fuel- 
Testing Plant): Report of L. P. Breckenridge, 
and discussion. 5-41 


Suggestions for future work 41-109 

"Recommendations" 42-45 

Discussion 45-109 

Denatured Alcohol and Gasoline 

Remarks of C. E. Munroe and dis¬ 
cussion 137-141 

Preliminary discussion 134-136 

Fuel-Testing 

Report by J.A.Holmes on the Determination of the 
Value of Fuels from Gov't.Coal and Lignite Mines, 
and discussion 141-164 

Object of the Exploration 141-164 

Collecting of Mine Samples 

and Information 142 

Uniformity of Test Results: 

Coal Washing 143,144 

Coking 145,146 

Coking and By-Products 160-164 

Briquetting and use of Bri¬ 
quettes on Railroads in 
United States and Abroad 146-155 

Coal storage: Storing under 

water (Chairman Dudley) 151, 152 


Gas Producer Division 


Work Undertaken or Accomplished: 

Report of R.H.Fernald, and 
discussion 109-136 





































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Mine Accidents, Prevention of 


Presentation of C.E.Munroe, and 

discussion 165-176 

(Subject introduced by J".A.Holmes 
and Chairman Dudley, p.164) 

Causes of accidents 165,166,174 

Heed of Gov't.Commission to super¬ 
vise use of explosives 166 

Gov ' t.supervision abroad and in 
the United States (pp.181 and 
182 to be inserted) 166-169 

Same, by B. E. Bush, and discus¬ 
sion 170-173 

Explosives that do not ignite - 

Mazurite 169,170 

Experiments, Question of recom¬ 
mending, and discussion by 

J. A. Holmes 173-176 

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Moisture in Coal 


Remarks of Chairman Dudley, and 

discussion 155-160 

Efficiency of Cu. ola increased 

in damp weather 155,156 

Influence of moisture in oper¬ 
ation of blast furnaces:Mr. 

Gayley's experiments 157-159 

Lowering of Temperature of gas¬ 
es burned under steam boilerl59,160 

Wasteful working of Mines (by de¬ 
stroying shallow veins in working 
deeper vein adjacent) Chairman 

Dudley, and discussion 176-178 

Instances, and suggestions for 
legislation 


176-178 







PERSONAL INDEX 


Barrue, G. H. 

1, 17, 18, 23, 25, 29, 38, 47, 51, 55, 61, 7C • ■' 

Breckenridge, Prcf. L. P. 

2-7, 17-138, 148, 154, 175, 179, 180; App. 1-10. 

Bush, B. F. 

1, 4, 56, 60, 53, 70, 71, 72, 83, 84, 86, 88, CZ 
90, 95-97, 105, 120, 121, 130, 133, 134, 144, 
149-151, 154, 163, 164, 170, 173, 174, 177. 

D*Invilliers, E. V. 

2, 5, 144-163, 173, 174, 177. 

Dudley, C. B. (Chairman) 

1, 7, 16, 21-25, 32, 34, 37, 39-41, 45, 54-75, 

78, 82-110, 126-160, 164-178. 

Fornald, Prof. R. H. 

2, 3, 103, 105, 109-112, 114, 117-139, 180; 

App. 1-11. 

Gibbs, A. W. 

1, 18, 19, 27, 36-38, 40, 46-48, 58, 60, 63, 64, 
66, 67, 69, 70, 73, 74, 91, 104, 106, 110, 121, 
122, 124, 135. 

Goss, W. F. M. 

1, 2, 5, 7, 19, 22, 31, 32, 34, 46, 48, 58-93, 
96-108, 128, 132-136, 175-180. 

Holmes, Prof. J. A. 

2, 5, 9, 23, 25, 34, 38, 41, 50, 52, 56-74, 
87-106, 109, 110, 117, 118, 124, 126, 130-155, 
160-16^, 169, 173, 175. 

Jacobus, Prof. D. S. 

2, 3, 23, 30, 31, 41, 59, 60, 61, 69, 76, 85, 86 
99-101, 105, 107, 111, 119, 137, 138, 152, 153. 

Lord, Prof. N. ?/. 

2, 3, 31-38, 79, 81, 97, 119, 150, 152, 158-163, 
170, 178-180. 

luahon, R. W. 

2, 84, 159, 161. 

Moldenke, R. 

2. 

Munroe, C. E. 

2, 3, 78, 82, 93, 94-96, 99, 123-138, 150, 156- 
165, 169, 170, 181. 

Quereau, C. H. 

2, 61, 89. 

Rae, Admiral C. W. 

2, 46, 43, 49, 54, 59, 63, 95, 99. 

Ray, W. T. 

2, 3, 9, 12, 20, 27, 29-40, 53, 67, 72, 76-86, 
139, 140, 151, 152, 156, 157, 159. 

Stott, H. G. 

1, 18, 26, 27, 29, 41, 46, 49, 53, 59-77, 84-91, 
97, 101, 108, 120, 136. 

White, Prof. I. C. 

1, 4, 41, 50, 57, 61, 62, 33, 87, 90, 93, 95, 96 
105, 110, 117, 120, 125, 126, 130, 131, 137, 144 
150, 156, 170, 174, 176, 177. 







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Report of Proceedings of a Conference 

of the 

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD OR DUELS AMD STRUCTURAL MATERIALS. 


Held at the Oriental Hotel, Manhattan Beach, Hew York, 
on August 10 and August 11, 1906. 

-oOo-r- 


August 10, 1906. 


Prof. William E. M. Goss called the meeting to order 
at 10:30 a.m. 

Present: 

Charles B. Dudley, Chairman, 

President, American Society for Testing Materials, 
Altoona, Pa. 

B. P. Bush, 

Manager and Vice-President, Western Coal & Mining Co.. 
St. Louis, Mo. (American Institute of Mining Engineers) 

Henry G. Stott, 

Superintendent Motive Power, Interborough Rapid Transit 
Co., Hew York (American Institute Electrical Engineers) 

W. E. M. Goss, 

Dean of the School of Engineering, Purdue University, 
Lafayette, Ina. (American Society Mechanical Engineers) 

George H. Barrus, 

Steam Engineer, Pemberton Square. Boston, Mass. (Ameri¬ 
can Society Mechanical Engineers); 

A. W. Gibbs, 

General Superintendent of Motive Power, P. R. R., 
Altoona, Pa. (Am. Ry. Master Mechanics Association); 

I. C. White, 

State Geologist, Morgantown, W. Va. (Geological Society 
of Arne r i c a) ; 






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AGmiral Charles W. Rae, 

Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, U. S. N. , 
Washington, D. C. 


Prof. Charles E. Munroe, 

George Washington University, Washington, D. C. 

Prof. D. S. Jacobus, 

Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J. 
Prof. N. W. Lord, 

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio* 

Prof. L. P. Breckenridge, 

University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 


Prof. R. H. Bernald, 

Washington University, St.. Louis, Mo. 


E. V. D r Invilliers, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 


v 


C. H. Quereau and R. W. Mahon, 

Hew York Central & Hudson River R. R. , New York City, 
representing Mr. Deems, who was unexpectedly called 
West and was therefore unable to attend. 


W. T. Ray, 

Richard Koldenke, Sec. Am. Foundrymen *3 Ass'n. Watohtung, K. J. 

Assistant Engineer of Boiler Tests, St. Louis, Mo. 


Prof. GOSS: It has been suggested that in the absence of 

Director Dudley, I call the meeting to order. I believe I am 
the only representative of the Executive Committee; and I act 
in obedience to Prof. Holmes 1 suggestion in calling the meeting 
to order. The objects of the meeting will be stated by Prof. 
Holmes. 

Prof. HOLMES: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: The business 
before this conference is the discussion of phases of the fuel 
problem which will be useful in guiding the investigations which 
will be conducted during the present year. I think you are all 



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ing the fuel investigation during the current fiscal year; and 
that was done with the understanding that the program laid down 
was one that could not be completed in less than ten years; so 
there can be no misunderstanding on the part of Members of Con- 
gress if Hie plans of this Committee should involve several 


years of work. The problems are large ones, and there are 
many things to be done before any one of the porblems can be 
solved. We are now particularly interested in laying the plans 
for the present year; but in mapping out the work it is with a 
view that several years will be necessary to carry out Hie plans 
which may be laid down. 

The field oi the investigation of this Board includes both 

fuels and structural materials, and it was thought best that 

this meeting shou d consist of those members of the Advisory 

% 

Board who were particularly interested in fuel problems, viz: 
combustion and power development. I have taken the liberty, at 
the suggestion of Professor Breckinridge, of inviting Professor 
Pernald and Professor Lord, who are particularly associated in 
this work, to be present. Hr. Kay and Prof. .Jacobus and Prof. 
Munroe are not official members of Hi is Board, but they are so 
interested in this work and these problems that it seems manifest¬ 
ly wise to have them with us. 

The conference is planned to be informal. We have present 
three stenographers so as not to miss the words of wisdom that 
may be put forth, and with a view to preserving them in our re¬ 
cords. But the report of these proceedings will be submitted 


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to each person before it is put inxo the record, so that it 
may he revised and corrected and edited or added to to get - : i't 
in shape for the final record. These discussions will he useful 
to the Board in the future, as well as to the members of the 
present meeting. The conference is intended to he informal; 
so it is not the place for set speeches, hut general and inform¬ 
al discussion in regard to these problems which we have before 
us. So there should not he any hesitation on the part of the 
members of the Board and our visitors in expressing opinions, 
because we have invited them to he present not only to listen 
to our talk hut to have them give us the best of their wisdom 
in regard to the different subjects of our investigation. We 
want to get the best results from the expenditure of this fund; 
so from our visitors and members of the Board we would ask for 
any plans submitted that they be favored with our criticism, 
whether it is friendly or adverse. We will take it in a friend¬ 
ly spirit under both conditions; but we should have the utmost 
freedom in adverse discussion of the subject, as we frequent¬ 
ly get more advantage from adverse criticism than from friendly 
comment. 

I do not think it is necessary for me to say more than that 
about it. 

The conference was called for today with the understanding 
that it would be extended over tomorrow if it were thought wise 
to do so. Prof. I. C. White, State Geologist of West Virginia, 
and Mr. B. F. 3ush, Manager of the Western Coal Mining Company 
of St.Louis, will also be here with us. They are connected 



with the mining phase of our problem; and Mr. E. V. D'lnvil- 
liers, who is an eminent coal mining engineer, will he with 
us tomorrow and Sunday. This will add much to the value of 
our discussion, and we hope many will he able to remain with 
us over Sunday. 

Prof. GOSS: I suppose there are three matters to re¬ 

ceive attention from this Committee. 

i 

First, '* '■ that which concerns work already accomp¬ 

lished; second, the things which should he undertaken in addi¬ 
tion to ’• those to which the Committee is alread}^ committed.; 
and, third, the way in which they should he undertaken. 

Hadn’t we better have some report as to what has been 
accomplished. 

Prof. HOLMES: Prof. Breckenridge has outlined a state¬ 
ment relating to the work of the Boiler Division. He has 
some extra copies, I understand, which he will distribute. 

I have lists of the members of the llational Board here 
and I will mark on this list those who are present and dis¬ 
tribute them. 

Prof. GOSS: We will now hear from Prof. Breckenridge. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: I have put together in this work 
of the Boiler Division two things as indicated: “What has 
been done”, and "Some suggestions for future work"; in order 
that we might have something for discussion. 

i 

I wish you might all know just what has been done. I do 
not know that you have all been at St.Louis or that you have 





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any familiarity with our plan; and I do not know how much 
time to take up in telling you just what has keen done. 

We have in St. Louis two Heine water tube boilers of 
210 h.p. each; they are exactly alike. Each boiler has 40 
square feet of grate area; and in these two boilers we have 

conducted up to date not far from 400 trials, representing coal 

♦ 

from twenty-four different states and nearly 160 kinds. 

It has been our thought that these tests should be com¬ 
parison of fuels, as well as we are able to acake them under 
these conditions; and we have made no changes in the settling. 
We realize all the time that some coals would burn better in 
some furnaces than in others; still the temptation to change 
in order to increase boiler efficiency we have resisted, be¬ 
lieving we should eliminate as many of the factors as possible 
that go into these tests, in order to have a satisfactory com¬ 
parison of the fuels tested. The same coal was used by Prof. 
Fernald in the Gas Producer Division. He used it in the Gas 
Producer tests and the gas produced has been used in a gas 
engine to generate electricity. The steam was used in a 
Corliss engine, which was used in the generation of electri¬ 
city. 

In the past year we have determined the water rate of the 
engine a good many times, and found it was a useless thing 
to try to measure the steam in that engine all the time; so 
we have simply made standard boiler trials. 

It would take me a long time to express my convictions 
















































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as to the value of boiler trials. Those who have made boiler 
trials will realize the difficulties involved and the unsatis¬ 
factory results sometimes obtained. Still, with 400 trials, 
with practically the same boiler -- 

(Director Dudley enters) 

Director DUDLEY: I am sorry to have delayed and in- 

V 

terrupted you, gentlemen. 

Prof. G-OSS: Dr. Dudley, in turning over the chair I 
would say that Professor Breckenridge is in process of stat¬ 
ing what has been accomplished in the Boiler Division of which 
he is the Director. 

(Dr. Dudley takes the chair) 

Prof. BRE0KERRIDGE (resuming): I was saying that we have 
made now about 400 boiler trials. I use that term as that is 
an easy way to designate them. They are really "fuel tests 
under boilers". 

We have adopted the method by which the American Society 
has conducted them and is reporting them. I think we have 
made progress along many lines in obtaining precise determi¬ 
nations and making careful observations. We have tried to 
make the tests accurate. They have been made by intelligent 
operators, all of them graduates of technical schools -- all 
of them familiar with the apparatus, the experiments, and the 
mathematical theories relating to these subjects; and they 
appreciate the necessity of making the observations with great 
care in order to obtain accuracy. 



G- 


I will call attention' to a few special things as I go 
along. 

You have perhaps seen scire oi the publications of the 
Survey, The publications or the Survey I have indicated here 
at present are two; Pirst, Bulletin No. 261, which was a 
snail pamphlet of about ICO pages. It was, as I say, a small 
bulletin giving preliminary information concerning the oper¬ 
ations of a plant, which we furnished rather early -- it was 
the first paper. Then came Professional Paper No. 48. Pro¬ 
fessional Paper No. 48 was that great big stack of publica¬ 
tions w'i ich contained all the information about the work done 
at that plant during the progress of the Y/orld T s Pair at St. 
Louis. It consisted of a report of 78 boiler trials, that had 
beer published and distributed. 

A great deal more work has been done by the Boiler Divi¬ 
sion; and manuscript has been furnished for t?/o additional 
reports, namely, Bulletin No. 290, which is a preliminary 
report ol the work done in 1905; and also Bulletin No. 290 
(4), which is „a premliminary report of the work from .January 
1, 1906, to July 1, 1906. This manuscript is now in the 
hands of the Government Printing Office. How long it will 
stay there I am sure I am unable to tell. It is unfortunate 
that no means have been devised by which matters relating 


to the results obtained have not been more rapidly printed 
and distributed, because it is evident it would be desirable 
to have them distributed more rapidly. 






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At the request of Dr. Holmes the Boiler division fur¬ 
nished manuscript for a special bulletin entitled "appliances 
for the Economical Burning of Soft Coal and for Smoke Preven¬ 
tion": I do not know where the manuscript of that is; it is 

over a year since it left my hands; hut that is not a serious 
puclication. It is somewhqt of a popular nature and de¬ 
scribes some of the more modern furnaces for economical con¬ 
sumption of coal. 

The Boiler Division is now preparing, at the suggestion 
and request of Dr. Holmes, what we call a special bulletin, 
and I would like to say quite a little about that special 
bulletin. It is not named yet -- it is not completed -- I 
think it may be called n A review of the St. Louis fuel tests 
under boilers". 

It seems to me that the people having charge of these 
tests are the ones to analyze the results and get them into 
shape for the engineering public; and with that object in view 
Mr. W. T. Hay and the men of the Computing Division have spent 
what time was available in doing just this thing. We have 
this bulletin in course of preparation. It will perhaps 

take three or four months to finish it. We have taken these 

400 trials, up to July 1st, and where they were comparable we 
would dray comparisons based on different factors; and in or¬ 
der to communicate what was done I have prepared something in 
the nature of a graphical representation of what we have un¬ 


dertaken. 










































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"A review of the St. Louis fuel tests under boilers: 
1st. Graphic representation or important relations 
from specially selected tests believed to be comparable. 
Relations between the quantities indicated below: 

: Blue Gas Temperature 

(a) Rate of Combustion Combustion Chamber Temperature 

: Boiler Capacity 


(b) Rate of Heat 
Evolution 


(c) C 01 . xb us t i o n Cham¬ 
ber Temperature 


(d) Combustion Cham¬ 
ber Temperature 


(e) Code Boiler 

Efficiency (72) 


(f) Eixed Carbon in 
Coal 

(g) Aver age Liam, 
of Co.al 

(h) Ash in coal 

(i) Moisture in 
the coal 


Boiler Efficiency (72°) 

Loss in Dry Starch Gases 

Incomplete Combustion 

Unaccounted for Losses 

Pounds oi Air per pound carbon 

The Gas Analysis 

Combustion Cbamb e r !empe r at ure s 

Blue Gas Temperatures 

Pounds oi air per lb. of Combustible 

GO, - CO - 0 2 

Combustion Chamber Temperatures 

Blue Gas Temperatures 

Boiler Efficiency 

Pounds oi Air per pound of Combustible 
Boiler Capacity 


Duel Bed 


Over Eire 







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(j) Temperature variation 

in 


(k) Combustion Chamber 
Temp, by 


Over Bridge Wall 

Base of Baffle Wall 

Combustion Chamber 

Optical Pyrometer 
and 

Steam water from gas sampler. 


In explanation of this matter I would say, for instance, 
that the rate of combustion for 80 different boiler trials 
has been compared with all these things stated on the diagram. 
It was compared with the flue gas temperature, the combustion 
chamber temperature, the boiler capacity and the boiler effi¬ 
ciency. That "720" after "boiler efficiency" refers to the 
Code number of the American Society. That might go in quo¬ 
tations, "boiler efficiency 72°" 

Then the rate of heat combustion has been compared and 
so on. 

There are 24 different charts representing these factors 
and I have some of those charts here. 

I present these things because I think it is due to our 
Division to let you know what some of our thoughts and plans 
have been in this connection, so you won’t think we have been 
grinding our boiler trials and stacking up results, as analy¬ 
sis of the matter and predigestion of the results is one of 
the duties we should expect of the Boiler Division 

These charts I am presenting are our notes practically; 
they are not in final shape, but they are prepared by the men 





























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12 


at St. Louj.s and are sent to me "by Mr. Ray, and we are work¬ 
ing the data up. I will say that here are the charts ready 
completed (producing papers); and Mr. Ray has brought some 
more this morning of the graphical charts which I have refer¬ 
red to on pages 3 and 4 of my paper. I cannot talk very much 
about these, but any who care to may look them over. 

We have taken up a great many new things. I will speak 
only of one of them -- the question of the rapidity of the 
passage of water through the water tube boilers; that is, 
how fast does it go through while the boiler is used under 

different capacities. 

% 

Mr. Ray and the boys devised a little metallic propeller 
arrangement and connected it to the pyrometer, and to the 
stufi ing boxes, and made a circuit connected up to a telephone, 
and they put the telephone to the ear and count the number 
of wheel revolutions. There (indicating on blueprir.g) is an 
outline of the little propeller used for that purpose, and 
it has given satisfactory results. There (indicating on 
blue-print) is a chart which gives the time passed over. Here 
(indicating on blue-print) the vertical ordinates show the 
number of revolutions. You will notice the little humps shown 
here (indicating on blue-print). That shows that the door is 
open and the fire is pushed and then this shows that the cir¬ 
culation is greater. That is one of the new things we have 
been working up. We could take up 20 or 30 more we have had 
in this way. 






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As a result oi all those tests, we have a chart here 
which covers the field. It shows the capacity oi the "boiler 
here (indicating) and the rapidity of circulation here (indic¬ 
ating) j which has "been determined from a large number of ex¬ 
periments. That really shows something fundamental in the 
way of circulation ox water through such a tube, and it should 
give something that relates to the question of heat trans- 
missi on at different temperatures and rates of flow through 
t ub e s. 

There is one tiling I would like to explain -- if you 
will look at these charts here -- and that is something as to 
what the numbers of them mean; and call your attention to the 
fact that charts made as these were are liable to be right. 

We have had 400 trials of boilers, all hand firing by the same 
man, and as many factors remaining constant as posable in 
these trials. 

Here (indicating) is a chart which gives British ther¬ 
mal units, evolved per sq.ft, of grate, per hour, and it 
shows the loss of air. 

The number against these shows the number of experi¬ 
ments which have been averaged to obtain that particular re¬ 
sult. On this one (indicating) it shows 22: here 17, 28, 14, 
16, and so on, trials of comparable objects which have been 
averaged to obtain these charts; which has never been possible 
in this sort of study before. Consequently it gives us some 
hope of getting at fundamental laws relating to this subject; 





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14 


and that is why we are making this special study of these 
various relations. 

I have put on here with red pencil the letters ”C”, "A M 
and "B” These letters refer to the letters in your notes. 
The charts will be here for a couple of days for your inspec 

i 

tion. Hr. Ray has some others, some more, we have received 
another consignment this morning. 

The Computing Department is engaged on this work con¬ 
tinually, and it seems to me it is very important to make a 
study and analysis of the work done up to this time for 
presentation. 

How, accompanying all of these charts is descriptive 
matter and texts, and we have prepared some 300 or 400 types 
written pages of text that go with these charts, and there 
is more manuscript to come along. 


I have outlined some of 


the 


things 


discussed and 


they 


are indicated beginning at the middle of page 4 
2nd -- Process of Combustion in a Seiler F 
(Includes explanation of methods used; points 
for some failures; suggests improved methods, 
THE FUPHACE - Its functions. 


> 

urnace. 


out reasons 
em. , e uc.) 


THE 30ILER - Its Func tione. 
The Efficiency of Boiler : 
The Efficiency of Furnace 
Combined Efficiency. : 


Commonly used efficiency 















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The Efficiency of Eurnace 
The Efficiency of Boiler 
Combined Efficiency 
Other Efficiencies 


Thermodynamic Efficiency 


THE PARTS of the furnace and their function. 

T-ie progress o 1 combustion from grate to stock. 

Table of furnace gas analyses of samples collected at 

tne top ol the fuel bed, rear of combustion chamber, at the 
base of the stack. 

Discussion of the analyses. 

iHE Biu' hLIHu- Y/ALL -- its objects -- its effect on com¬ 
bustion. 


Table of temperatures of fuel bed, over fire, above 
bridge wall, at the base of baffling wall, and in the rear of 
combustion chamber. 

Same as above as affected by changes in combustion per 
square feet of grate. 

Bise of flue temp, when gas mixing wall falls. 

Charts showing variation of fuel bed, arer fire and 
combustion chamber temperature. 

Discussion giving reason for the variation. 

Comparisons of temperature of combustion chamber as read 
by optical pyrometer, with stream of water from water jacket¬ 
ed gas sampler. 

How temperature readings were taken. 

How the optical pyrometer agreed with the thermoelectric 
















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16 


couple. 


How the "volatile matter" of coal affects the temper¬ 
ature in combustion chamber. 


We have discussed these various things indicated here. 

I will not go over them, "but will simply state that in our 
investigations we have collected and have on file a,ll the 
printed matter the world has furnished up to this date on this 
subject, and have secured all that was published in the 
irencn and German languages. It is possible we have omitted 
seme things, but I think we have done as much in this country 
as anywhere on this line; and I think we are to be congratu¬ 
lated right now for having made as fine a collection of trials 


as we have. 


That completes the work up to this time. We have made 


a lot of boiler trials and tried to make them accurately; 
and we have furnished for publication the complete results -- 


that is, up to to-day. As a result of the work and the thought 
we have expended to analyze this data, it seems we should do 
other things, but these we will suggest later on. 

I will stop here in order that any discussion may be 


presented right now in connection with the work which has 
been undertaken or accomplished. We would be glad to learn 
what anybody has to enquire -- either to say or to ask. 

The CHAIRMAN: What kind of boiler did you say you 


used? 







































































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17 


Prof. E1I£CKEHRII)GE: Heine water tube “boiler. The draw¬ 
ings of that boiler are here. They were published in that 
Professional Paper he. 48. They are 220 h.p. on a 10 square 
foot ba.sis. 

How, there is one other thing: Here are some more blue¬ 
prints which go with this pilce. These later ones I am submit¬ 
ting now have no red pencil numbers which connect them with 
the manuscript furnished. 

I call attention to this rather interesting set of tables, 
which I for one should like to see published in a small pam¬ 
phlet. Here are some things connected with the result of 
each trial, and they are graded under the States. Here 

(indicating) are the coals tested from the State of West Vir¬ 
ginia on this chart (indicating). After West Virginia comes 
the Virginia coal, and so on down through here, grouped under 
the States. Having them arranged in that way, they are mere 
readily comparable. We have had Pennsylvania and Ohio and 
Indiana and Illinois coal; we have had some from Brazil in 
South America; we had a lot from Illinois and other places. 
When we'cannot get coal anywhere else we get Illinois coal, 
because Illinois is near and so is rather available. 

I night say in passing that it is necessary to test Ill¬ 
inois coal; it is not so easy to burn as Pennsylvania coal. 

Hr. GEORGE II. BABBITS: Would it not be a good idea to go 
over these tables and give us the approximate results of the 
tests of coal from the different quantities? 











18 


\ 


Prof. BHECKENRIDGrE : I will. In the last three columns 

here I have the equivalent average from 1 to 210 per hour. 
Those are the three columns we look at "best. I should say, 
perhaps, that "per lb. of dried coal" is good for comparison. 
That (indicating) is the over-all efficiency. 

Mr. GIBBS: What is that (indicating)? 

Prof. Breckenridge: Pried coal and dried coal as fired. 
There are 20 Pennsylvania ccals, 20 of them, and dried coal 
as fired -- the combustible averages from 10.21 to 11.29. It 
is 10 l/-4 to 11 l/4 lbs. of water to a pound of combustible, 


over and 


x rs 




12 . 


The over-all efficiency for that boiler runs for that 


coal from 67 to 71 percent. 

Mr. BARBUS: Is that efficiency on the combustible? 

Prof. BBECKEhPIDGB: This is the number of units of heat 

delivered to the boiler, divided by the number of unites ol 

\ 

heat existing in the coal. 

Hr. Stott: That includes efficiency of the boiler and 
furnace? 

Prof. BHBCKEhKIPGE: Yes, sir; that is what we call the 
over-all efficiency. 

Mr. STOTT: Have you been able to separate those effi- 
ciencies? 


Prof. BHECICEh'BIDGE: Yes, sir; we think we have. We have 
nrobablv separated the furnace and boiler efficiency in all 

~ v JL 

these; and the true boiler efficiency gives us the efficiency 





19 


of that toiler within 2 percent of the 82 percent for the 400 
trials. That tern is not used in the Code. When I speak of 
the true toiler efficiency I mean the ratio between the number 
, of heat units delivered to the boiler divided by the number 
of units of heat evolved in the furnace. Then when you come 
to determine the number of heat units evolved in the furnace 
you have a much more difficult task. 

That is what we call a "true boiler efficiency"; but it 
has not been so used in the Code. That should not be intro¬ 
duced now, as we should be able in the course of another 
year to demonstrate, by methods and devices and appliances, 
so that we get true boiler efficiency. 

Mr. GIBBS: What is the difference? 

Prof. BEliCKEHRIDGE: The coal contains a certain number 
of units of heat. The boiler efficiency is the ratio between 
the number of heat units delivered to the boiler divided by 
the number of units of heat evolved by the furnace. The 

furnace efficiency is the number of units of heat evolved in 
the furnace and delivered to the boiler, divided by the number 
of units of heat in the coal. 

Mr. GIBBS: That is what you said before. 

Prof. BRECJfShHIDGE: I said the number of units of heat 
absorbed by the boiler. 

Mr. GIBBS -- "Delivered to the boiler" is what I thought 
3 >-ou said. 

Prof. GOSS: The true boiler efficiency is a function 




\ 



20 


varying with the transmission of heat. It will he a constant 
for a given ratio of power. 

Prof. BBECICEHRIDC-E: Yes, sir. It is constant at all 
rates of power, so far as I can see. 

Mr. RAY: You cannot blame a hoiler for not absorbing 
that heat below its steam temperature; and it is very true and 
we found it in practice, that our boilers absorb 82 percent 
of all the heat presented to them above the steam temperature; 
and that 62 percent, when we figured to get it, the answers 
all came out extremely close to 82, that is as close as exper¬ 
imental errors can come. 

Bear in mind that all the errors accumulate in that last 
column. 

The heat absorbed bv the boiler divided by what is deliv- 
ered to the boiler above steam temperature, is between 64 and 
82 percent. If you take as base the efficiencies as the;/ fig¬ 
ure out, and tal:e as the ordinates the number of tests, and 

\ 

plot them, you will get a mathematical probability curve which 
will show that they should go about 82. 

Just as an astronomer would plot a curve in determining 
an orbit. That enables us, as Iar as we can see now, to throw 
the boiler clean out of it. It remains to substantiate that 
and to prove that it is correct -- although everything points 
that way and nothing against it. 

Prof. BRECKEIIRIDGE: There .is no doubt that these tests 
will show that some of the thoughts we have had on some sub- 



































































































... ... 



























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S* 


. *•* 












21 


jects are changed. I have changed my mind considerably as 
to the effect of temperature change, or high temperatures as 
affecting boiler efficiency. for instance, we measured some 
furnace temperatures. We have the figures for about 300 tests 
We have measured furnace temperatures all the way from the 
fuel bed, over the fire, over the bridge wall, at the base or 
foot of the mixing or baffle wall, and over into the combus¬ 
tion chamber, and clear up through the boiler. We have tem¬ 
perature gradients at points all through the boiler, and we 
have been able to do that as fully as ever they have been done 
Those who have done this work will appreciate what it is 
to do it every ten minutes. 

Here (indicating) is an efficiency curve from 1850 to 
2800. It is almost a straight line. That is what we call 
the over-all efficiency. 

That middle line is an efficiency curve on the basis of 
furnace temperature. 

The measurement of temperatures with optical pyrometers 
with streams of water from water jacketed gas samplers: -- 
There are several forms of pyrometers which have been 
tried, but I am bound to say we are still looking for some 
good way. With the optical pyrometer you put on a sort of 
pair of opera glasses, and you screw it until you get to the 
right place, and then you take a lock to get the temperature. 
But the personal equation enters some, as in all other cases - 
The CIIAIJuyAN: As I understand, the object of our meeting 



























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22 


in the consideration of these problems is, from the practical 
standpoint of those in the busy world, to tell these gentle¬ 
men who are doing this work what we want them to do. 

Prof. BHP.CKEHRIDGrS: Bor that reason I show what we have 
done, so that you will not say: ""Why don't you do this?" or 
some other thing. But we will take a list after we have fin¬ 
ished of what you want done. 

The CEAIPJ-lAW: We have listened to the statements of what 
lias been done; but as I understand the principal function of 
cur coming together, it is to tell these people what we want 
to know yet* Who will state that problem? 

Prof. GOSS: I think, Mr. Chairman, we can congratulate 
Prof. Breckenridge on the large amount of work he has been able 
to accomplish, and the way in which he has prepared his data. 
The whole purpose of ray statement is to express an interest in 
the work done by Prof. Breckenridge. I think very few criti¬ 
cisms can be urged against the methods adopted in securing 
data or handling the results. It is a fine piece of work 
and it will bear much more study than has yet been put upon 
it. It is a good starting point. 

As I conceive it, we should not be tied too closely to 
the things which have been done, in determining future policies 
The work which has been done, as I understand it, was outlined 
particularly as a World's Pair job, and it could not have the 
breadth of purpose which work should have to be the result of 
study by such a Board as this should give. So I think while 

































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23 


we have nothing but commendation for what has been accorqofish¬ 
ed, we should feel perfectly free to make changes in practice 
or in equipment; and certainly to enlarge the plans in what¬ 
soever way an enlargement may suggest itself to us. That is 


the only thing now in my mind, Mr 


Chairman. 


Prof. HOLMES: If I may add a word to what was said by 
Prof, 'loss, I would state that he was right. This was under¬ 
taken during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition as a popular 
exhibition to the people visiting there as to what might be 
done in the way of testing fuel; and the work there, in which 
we had the co-operation of the railroads to transport our 
materials, and the coal companies' co-operation in giving us 
the coal, has been carried on with a view to continuing that 
work and making a comparison of the results of the coal. 

We have gotten coal from the princij;al coal fields, 
though not as many as we wanted; but as Prof. Goss says, we 
have reached the point now -- and it was understood by Congress 
in making this appropriation -- that we are at the point 
where we must study the problem of how this fuel can be used 
most efficiently and economically; and to devise tests and 
secure equipment in order to show the most efficient means of 
using the fuel which people in this country have to use. 

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Barrus, can you give us some state¬ 
ments as a starter? You and Prof. Jacobus are the Nestors of 
boiler testing in this country. 

Mr. BARRUS: I have a little which I wish to say later cn. 


























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24 


Prof. 3BSCICS1SIIID3E: Perhaps nothing satisfactory can he 
said about our work until it has been studied carefully; and 
Mr. Ray will be here to furnish information to anybody want¬ 
ing it. 

Before we pass on, however, I want to call attention to 
this thesis by Mi*. Hanry Kreisinger. Mr. Kreisinger has watch¬ 
ed all of these fire tests. He has practically kept his eye 
on those fires and opened and shut the regulators, regulated 
the air supply, and controlled the firing generally. He is a 
graduate of the University of Illinois, and two years ago he 
presented as his thesis for a degree "Coal Tests Under Some 
Boilers". So that a large part of his thesis is extremely 
interesting in this connection. He paid particular attention 
to the measurement of furnace temperatures, and the measure¬ 
ments of those derived from coals of different natures. He has 
outlined the results in this thesis, and he has deduced a math¬ 
ematical formula for true boiler efficiency, and he shows com¬ 
parative tables, and particularly a set of charts of this de¬ 
scription which show the furnace temperatures as affected by 
the different firing periods. 


There is a certain firing where the temperature goes with 
one kind of coal tc a maximum; and there are 80 or ICO kinds 
of coal pictured here very graphically. I have never seen 
anything that equals this thesis. 

Some of the gentlemen may be interested in looking over 
this work. This goes into that work a little more elaborate- 




















































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25 


1 y than anything heretofore/, and I think Mr. Kreisinger is de¬ 
serving of special commendation for the watching of these fur¬ 
nace conditions to get ideal results. 

Mr, BAKRUS: I should he glad if Prof. Breckenridge should 
go into these tests more fully and tell us the general results 
obtained under certain particulars. 

He began on that when the Chairman entered. 

I would like to know the different efficiencies obtained 
with the different classes of coal, and the result of the heat 
balances with different kinds of coal; and when he has pre¬ 
sented that I would like to make some suggestions about future 
work. 

Prof. BIlECICELHIDGE: Has any one here a copy of that pub¬ 
lication, Professional Paper Ho. 48? 

Dr. Holmes: There is one copy of it at the office of the 


hotel. 

(Paper procured) 

Prof. BEECKPHR1DGE: In Publication Ho. 48 the report of 
the Boiler Division shows graphically the heat distribution 
of the tests made during the World's Pair, and the part absorb¬ 
ed by the boiler, the escaping gases and radiation and the un- 
accounted-fcr, etc. I may say the results since then have for 
the most part duplicated the results shown in that chart. The 
highest efficiencies of over-all efficiencies -- I am talk¬ 
ing of the ratio absorbed by the boiler to the heat contained 
in the coal -- both very clearly and easily determined quanti- 































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26 


ties -- with oyer-all efficiency it varies from 72 percent as 
the highest to -- for coals -- about 62 being the lowest. 

There are some lignites which drop below that, but our effi¬ 
ciencies run from 62 to 72 percent for all the tests made. I 
should say our efficiency average would be 65 percent. Of 
course, each one of these is to be considered by itself, and 
it shows what the oyer-all efficiency is for the various coals 
on these various charts. On this chart (indicating) the 
over-all efficiency is 71 percent as the highest and 63 per¬ 
cent as the lowest; that is, 63 to 71 percent on Pennsylvania 
coal. 

Here (indicating) Ohio coals over-all efficiency, none of 
them 70 percent. Here is 67 the highest I see -- 62 -- 60, 

60 is the lowest; that is, 60 to 67 on Ohio coal. 

You will understand this would never do for publication 
in the report. I am trying to run up and down so as to catch 
the high and low ones. 

Indiana coals, the efficiency is 59 for the lowest and 67 
for the highest, about 65 for the average Indiana efficiency. 

Illinois coal efficiency is 49 -- there is one as low as 
45 -- and there is one 68; so it varies from 45 to 68. The 
efficiencies are lower on Illinois coal, and again on West 
Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois you see the efficien¬ 
cies as you run down those columns. 

* 

Mr. STOTT: Do you include anthracite? 

Prof. BRSCiCEHPIIXrE: Ho, sir, all bituminous. 








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hr. GIBBS: Was that because the boiler or furnace did 

% 

not suit with that particular coal? That is, something which 
has to come up in another form, and I am wondering whether 
there was any indication to show that the low efficiencies in 
some cases was because the boiler and furnace did not suit 
those coals. 


V 


Prof. BKECKERIIIDGE: It is my personal opinion that 


r? 


iven the existing data now lying on the table, we ought to be 
able to design a furnace for any coals that would give the same 
efficiency. In other words, we should know enough pretty soon 
so that we can design a furnace to give 70 percent with Illi¬ 
nois coal, just as we now in another furnace get 70 percent 
with West Virginia coal. I feel that way as the result of 
this work. Of course the furnace should be varied for the dif¬ 
ferent coals. Our combustion chamber is long and the Heine 


boiler tube is long, that is all covered with fire brick. 

That makes a long firing cylinder, and yet it is not long 
enough for some coals. It is not necessary to be half of that 
length in West Virginia coal. 

Mr. STOTT: Is that a function of the volatile matter con¬ 
tained in the coal? 

Prof. BHEC'CSBTilDGE: Yes, sir. Mr. Hay will tell us what 
he thinks about that. 

Mr. RAY: In confirrnation of the statement of Prof. Breck- 
enridge that it should be possible to design a furnace to give 
high efficiency with any coal, I would say that in regard to 



-< 


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• » V • 


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28 


tracing power efficiency to any certain feature, it is uncer¬ 
tain. We have in plotting these tilings not attributed it to 
the volatile matter or the fixed carbon, but we have gone to 
the ratio to ultimate analysis. The matter of size of coal, 
and moisture and other things, enter and obscure results; but 
as you go down in the ratio of plain carbon over hydrogen to 
the highly volatile coal, the over-all efficiency tends to 
drop. That is a consequence of our ignorance, we have found. 
The indications are if we knew enough we could get equal ef¬ 
ficiencies on all coals. We have burned some lignites with 
40 percent of moisture and 25 percent of ash; and from what 
is left you can see how little combustible matter we have; and 
yet we have some pretty high efficiencies on those. We gener¬ 
ally get high efficiencies in those cases through what we may 
call "fool's Inch", rather than anything else. 


I believe every coal should have a specially adapted 
grate and furnace of its own; and I might add that in 90 per¬ 
cent of the cases the combustion chamber is not adequate or 
sufficient. Mere length of combustion chamber is not the way 
to put it. Suppose two streams are flowing along through 
there, if they are not mixed b 3 ' some arrangement, they will 
never mix; they will go right along in parallel streams in¬ 
stead of mixing. It is not' a question of length, but one 
mixing- by a good honeycomb baffling wall is as good as con¬ 
siderable length added to the combustion chamber. We think a 
furnace could be built with an efficiency cver-all of 70 or 





V 


29 


75 percent with lignites; I think the efficiency could run 
up nearly as high as that with a poor grade of coal. 

Of course, there is the question of moisture in poor 
coal, but that is not very serious. 

Mr.STOTT: Have you noticed there is any difference due 
to the variable temperatures shown on the curve just ex¬ 
hibited, which in turn seems to be due to variable firing? 

£ 

That is, there is a lack of continuous process of combustion 
by hand firing, and if you have a continuous process of fir¬ 
ing, would not that bring the efficiencies closer together? 

Mr.HAY: There is no question about that. Our own ar¬ 
rangement is a hand shift. Y/e take a look at the api-roxi- 
inate analysis and then at the ultimate analysis, and we tell 
how much we will fire each time. After it has gone on for 
an hour if we find it is not right, we start that test over 
again. What we really want is an automatic stoker. 

Prof.BRECKEHRIHGE: Mr. Kreisinger discusses the question 
of firing in his thesis, and he points out the advantages of 
a mechanical stoker. 

Mr.BARRUS: Can you tell the gentlemen about the heat 
balances? 

Prof .BHECI'CEilKIDGE: Yes, sir. The heat balances are set 
forth graphically in Professional Paper Ho. 48. That brings 
out the heat balances of the 78 trials made during the World’s 
Pair. The part absorbed by the boiler is indicated, the part 
necessary to evaporate the moisture is there, and the part 



























30 


carried away in escaping gases up the stack, and then the un¬ 
accounted for losses. How the most exasperating thing in his 

opinion is the largeness of these unaccounted for losses. That 

* 

is one of the things we propose to do -- we propose to devise 
ways and means to determine what these unaccounted for losses 
are. They vary from 5 to 15 percent. how here is 15 per¬ 

cent of the heat which we know is in the coal, and yet we do 
not know what has become of it. We guess at it; but guess¬ 
ing won't serve in this work. That is unaccounted for lcsse 
including radiation. The radiation is 3 or 4 percent. So 
that unaccounted for losses varying from 5 to 12 percent we 
could cut that down a little by cutting off these unaccounted 


for losses perceptibly. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Is the heat balance based on the heat per 

i 

lb. of combustible or the heat per lb. of coal? 

Prof. BIlECKEr'HIDG-E: I do not remamber. I think this 
is dried coal we used. This left my hand two years ago,-- 
it is the heat in dried coal. 

Mr. RAY: Another trouble with the heat balance is this: 

I do net believe it is possible to take a sample of coal as 
burned. In one instance a sample was put into a big air-tight 
jar. We turned that out of the jar and divided its contents 
into two equal portions, and got two samples to check on mois¬ 
ture; but those are not our actual conditions of burning coal. 

We find we can get a curve of over-all boiler efficient 
cy which drop,s with the percentage of moisture; that is, talc- 
















31 


ing that due to heating up to flue temperature, and there is 
still a drop. Of course, the more moisture there is in the 
coal the more that is true. 

Unaccounted fcr is away up. That means that Prof. Lord 
in his laboratory analyzes a much better sample than we burn. 

I do not think a boiler test is accurate within 3 or 4 percent. 

It is an approximate guess only. 

Prof. GOSS: The uncertainties are in the fuel? 

Mr. RAY: They are in everything, in the fuel and in the 
manipulation. 

Prof. JACOBUS: I agree with what Mr. Ray says about di¬ 
viding the coal. You take a shovelful cut of a barrel and 
put it in a cold place or some covered place, and then you 
take it out and quarter it and it may have contained initially 
8 or 10 percent of moisture. Of course, you can run as high 
as 25 percent of moisture. 2fow you put that on the smooth 
floor and divide it and you finally take your sample. You do 
not then get actual conditions. That is one of the weak 
points in this method of making boiler tests. 

To get over that with anthracite and buckwheat you can 
seal up the samples. And you can in that way probably 
satisfy your conscience, but that is only a rough guess which 
you get at the truth. 

Prof. GOSS: Should not the coal be reduced to a stand¬ 

ard condition of dryness before testing? 

Prof. BRECKEITRILGE: But you would not have the actual 

















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32 


conditions of burning. It would be necessary to devise cer^ 
tain appliances for the determination of some things not usual 
ly attempted under boiler testing before we can expect to re¬ 
duce the percentage of unaccounted for losses. 

Mr. Hay: There is a calculation here which shows how a 
percentage of hydrocarbon and free hydrogen so small as not to 
be determined by an Arsap (?) analysis can induce an error of 
from 10 to 15 percent. 

Prof. BHECXEIfRIPGE: We must have an apparatus which will 
enable us to carefully determine the hydro-carbon before we 
can get down to the unaccounted losses. 

The CHAIRMAN: That is, the smoke and unburned gaseous 
material? 

Prof. BHBCmihlPGB: Yes, sir. 

Prof. GOSS: Where a test is abnormal^/ low, you are not 
able to determine what the cause of that is -- as to whether 
the gases are having imperfect combustion. 

Prof. BRSCJCEhRIDGE: After any of these 400 tests were 

i 

completed, we can say right away -- “This test would have been 
higher if we had used more air", or less air; but then it is 
too late. 

Prof. GOSS: Is your heat balance sufficiently accurate 
to determine? 

Mi”. RAY: I should say that the heat balance is very un¬ 
reliable, as between the loss and the hot flue gases. The 
sum of those two is constant, but in the ordinary stack you 




























* 




/ 


/ 






33 

can move a thermometer around and get variations of 150 or 
200 degrees. In other words, it is an integrated average. 

That would throw you out completely. 

Then we have found out it is impossible -- in our case 
at least, to get a brick setting in tight. We have had the 
stack painted and everything plugged up with tar, but we have 
never been able to reduce the leakage. That is, for every 
100 lbs. of gas which entered the boiler you have 130 or 140 
lbs. You do not know where that air entered and you can 

not get an accurate heat balance. We are building a sheet 

iron boiler with everything caulked. Those dry gas analyses 

\ 

were taken there. We did that because all the time that was 
the case, but it took several months to get the thing down. We 
finally found we could plot percentage of air leakage against 
the average draft -- that is, the difference between the grate 
and stack, and we found the leakage was a straight line func¬ 
tion which would correspond to a leakage proportioned to the 
square root of the head. For that reason we are making some 
correction on that. 

We found out that a brick wall perfectly tight, with no 

cracks in it, has so much air getting through that a box of 

two square feet area with a hole in it and a candle placed to 

% 

that hole, sucks the flame. Those walls have been painted 
with three or four coats of paint. That shows it is out of 
the question to do accurate scientific work with brick set¬ 
ting. It must be metal -- but, of course, lined with brick. 










34 


Prof. C-OSS: Even when you close off all leakage you 
still have trouble? I have been working on 100 tests of loco¬ 
motives. We have tests which are abnormally low and we are 
absolutely unable to account for that low test. Our conclu¬ 
sion is we do not know what the gases are. You must analyze 
the whole stream. 

Mr. KAY: And you cannot do that? 

Prof. GOSS: We have never been able to do it? 

Dr. KOLI'fES: It may be well here to hear from Prof. Lord. 

Prof, LOLL: I have a word or two in regard to this mois¬ 
ture proposition. I have been as much interested in this 
question of unaccounted losses as Prof. Breclcenridge. It is 
a problem I have worked with a good deal, and I was at first 
inclined to charge a good deal of it to the chemist; and so I 
have made quite a study of the chemical part of the work. As 
far as our laboratory samples are concerned, we are improving 
in the way in which they are taken, but the result of our 
work has been to show that to obtain a correct laboratory sam¬ 
ple is an extremely difficult proposition; even starting from 
the point where we receive it in the sealed cans and in quan¬ 
tities of 50 lbs. 

The CHAIH2IAY: That is, sample of coal? 

Prof. LOKD: Yes. We have adopted the air tight method. 
It is then rapidly crushed and divided and we are now pul¬ 
verizing all our samples for analysis in a ball mill. They 
are then hermetically sealed, and v;e find that gives several 










































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35 


tenths percent more moisture -- that is, in our laboratory. 

I do not think there is a loss of moisture amounting to 
very much -- probably a very small fraction of one percent; so 
I do not have the moisture determinations in our samples. 

In regard to calorimeter work, we run them in duplicates 
and at moderately short intervals. They are on standard mater¬ 
ials like naphtha and things of that kind; and we show that 
the routine work checks up closely on those. I think our cal¬ 
orimeter tests are correct within 3/10 of one percent; many 
of them are closer than that; but that is an error we do not 
often exceed. The ultimate analysis and the calorimeter de¬ 
termination variations will not account for one or 1 l/2 per¬ 
cent of your unaccounted losses. 

Now in regard to the change of sample, that would be 
shown in the coal containing the wet sample. In the ordin¬ 
ary bituminous coal, and probably those lower in moisture, I 
do not think the moisture is more than 1 or 2 percent, but it 
could be lower in the lignite and washer coal samples. S > 
sample of lump coal that has been over all/4 inch stream may 
be thoroughly wet and allowed to drain and not disclose more 
than 1 or 1 l/2 percent, wherever sample of run-of-mine may 
be apparently no wetter and yet contain 8 or 9 percent. So I 
think moisture variations are possibly avenues for accounting 
for these unaccounted losses in fine coal that has been wet, 
or that originally contained moisture. 

There is another point in our work on which I have not 




% 

























36 


prepared any figures, and that is the comparatively rapid al¬ 
teration of many of our coal in calorific power. Variations 
of 2 or 3 percent may occur in a moderately short time in the 
calorific value. 

Mr. RAY: Mr. Stanton told me that a ground sample would 
change as much as 1 percent in a day. 

Prof. LORD: We have many figures prepared on this sub¬ 
ject and we will have them prepared during the year,-an I 
think. Some of these tests have been conducted with the 
samples for over a year. 

Mr. GIBBS: Is that due to oxidation? 

Prof. LORD: They are waiting to get through there and 
make tests with the residual samples. 

Hr. GIBBS: Does the method enable you to tell how much 
is due to oxidation? 

Prof. LORD: Our tests are not completed; but we know 
there is steady oxidation, and that the oxidation is compar¬ 
atively rapid; that in some cases there is a gain of weight 
and sometimes loss of weight, and in all cases there are 
changes in the calorific value of the fuel. This is in keep¬ 

ing crushed samples to accentuate the facts. How far that may 
affect Mr. Ray's statement about getting samples a little late 
I don’t know. 

Hr. RAY: It might depend on what piece you take, whether 
it is before or after oxidation. 

Prof. LORD: We take the coal at the beginning, starting 
























I 

37 

with 100 Its., in its original condition. 

Mr. RAY: But 100 Its. of coal after oxidation might show 
more heat than before oxidation. 

The CIIAIRHAIT: I would like to say in confirmation of Mr. 
Lord’s statement that we prepared a sample for standard of 
calorimeter value. We took the same coal, pulverized it, 
dividing it into two parts, and one part we put in a sealed 
vessel, the other part we diluted with nitric acid. There 
was powerful decomposition and the sulphur was largely removed 
and after the action of the acid has ceased the coal was thor¬ 
oughly washed with water and dried, and then the two coals 
were sent to ten different parties to determine calorimeter 
value in a ball calorimeter. In every case the treated coal 
gave a less calorimeter value than the other. In those cases 
the classification was based on the original coal, but we were 
surprised at the determination in the calorimeter value due 
to the acid. Our idea was to get a standard coal to use as 
a basis of comparison. There is no question that the action 
of oxidation reduces the calorimetric value. 

Mr. GIBBS: Have you reached the point where you have 
settled in your mind where the ultimate analysis is, sufficient 
to base the commercial value on? 

Prof. LOHL: I have felt that the ultimate analysis can 
be duplicated and that it is a definite factor in the quality 
of coal; whereas the proximate analysis cannot be duplicated 
and stands for nothing but a way of treatment. 



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38 


In regard to the ultimate analysis, I find no such comparisons 
as I have made, that assume fixed unaccounted for losses with 
the comparison of the different coals. Usually the ultimate 
analysis and calorimetric value correspond very closely to 
their practical utility. 

Mr. GIBBS: In the furance under consideration, and under 
normal draft? 

Prof. LORD: Yes, sir. 

Mr. BARRUS: Would you apply that to a very volatile coal? 

Prof. LORI): It applied to a coal with a great deal of 
volatile matter in it, hut not such as to warrant me in reach¬ 
ing a general conclusion. This is on the assumption of 

the proper relation of the coal to the furnace. 

Prof. BRECKZENHIDGE: That is, when we can define the 
proper furnace for a given coal. 

Prof. LORD: Yes, sir. Then your ultimate analysis would 
enable you to determine within 2 or 3 percent of the calori¬ 
metric value. We find there are few coals so bad that if you 
work hard enough you cannot get good results from. 

Mr. RAY: That vitiates all hand firing. If we had 
something along the line of the Roney stoker it would be bet¬ 
ter. Then you would have on a grate the same thing hour after 
hour. 

Dr. HOLMES: You have found slag troubles your locomotive 
firemen, haven't you, Mr. Gibbs? 

Mr. GIBBS: There are certain Iowa coals that practically 





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39 


stop admission of coal through, the grate. 

\ 

The CHAIRMAN: We have had molten slag carried up by the 
draft in anthracite against the flues. 

Prof. B RE CONRIDGE: We have "been careful to make obser¬ 
vation of these coals as to whether they clinkered, and the 
percentage of ash that went easily through the grate; and I 
think the reports of these tests will he useful in that way. 

We have from time to time made what seemed to us valuable 
additions to the Code for future use. 

The CHAIRMAN: Does the fusibility of the ash have some¬ 
thing to do with the amount of combustible consumed? 

Mr. BAY: We tried to get at that once, but we did not 
want to express an opinion, as we could not tell. There are 
so many things that enter into fuel-bed temperature -- for 
instance, you put one-half the total air through the grate 
in one case and in another case one-third, and in another case 
two-thirds, and it depends on how your coal burns, etc. In 
fact, the fuel-bed temperature changes with every firing. But 
we have taken temperatures with the optical pyrometer where we 
jab the tube in and found that is black. We find that the 
minute the fireman opens the door, that the temperature drops 
in three or four seconds. Sometimes it comes up rapidly 
again and sometimes it stays down until they are ready to 
fire again. 

The CHAIRMAN: How much coal per sq. ft. of grate do you 
actually burn in these tests? 




















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40 


Mr. HAY: Rather low -- 18 or 20 lbs. 

The CHAIRMAN: That is rather low when you come to the 
comparison with the locomotive with 250 lbs. -- that is a big 
difference. 

Mr. Gibbs: Is there any indication in these tests that 
your combined efficiencies are going up with your increased 
combustion? -- In other words, are you approaching a point 
where we, starting with the higher rate, will enable you to 
predict the intermediate points? 

Prof. BRECKENRIDCrE: We started out with the idea that 
we would operate at a point which we found necessitated burn¬ 
ing from 18 to 22 lbs. per sq. ft. of grate area, and we are 
away below your grade. 

Mr. Gibbs: My recollection is that your combined effi¬ 
ciencies are lower than ours in the locomotives in St. Louis. 
What I want to know is, as you are running up -- 

Prof. BRLCITEYRILGE: We are running down. It shows that 
the efficiency is dropping -- that the higher you reach the 

t 

harder you work the boilers and furnaces, the lower your effi¬ 
ciency. That is, as you increase the firing and consumption 
of fuel, the temperature in the rear rises but it does not 
do so all over. 

Mr. RAY: There is one thing in the time element: The 
time occupied by gases travelling from the grate to the en¬ 
trance of the boiler is a vital function. The more coal you 
burn the less time it 'cakes for any gas to go through. 










41 


• i ,.. 

Dr. HOLMES: Bear in mind this fact: We are now ready to 
take hold of the combustion problem, and we might, on re¬ 
assembling this afternoon, take up the question of boiler work 
first -- as to what the real problems are; what changes and 
what new equipment will be needed, and be best able to solve 
our problems, and then how we can best handle and treat the 
coal to be put into the furnace. In that way we can finish 
the boiler work this afternoon and then take up next the ques¬ 
tion of the gas producer. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Is tiiis test made according to the stand¬ 
ard or alternate method? 

Prof. BPiECKEURIBGB.: We used the alternate method in 

.. .. • * ? 

all these trials. 

Recess until 2:15 p.m. 


APTERUOOH SESSION, AUGUST 10, 1906. 

The Chairman called the meeting to order at 2*40 p.m. 
Dr. HOLMES: Mr. Chairman, I should like to introduce 
Prof. White before we start. 

The CIIAIRMA1I: Who will best state to us the problem to 

/ 

be solved as far as the boiler is concerned 9 

Dr. HOLMES: Mr. Breckenridge, you have a tabulated 


statement there, I believe. 














42 


Mr. BRECKENRIDGE: In order that we may have something to 
discuss, I may say that I have not seme particular scheme to 
advance before some other scheme, but it seems to me that from 
the possibilities of our plant going elsewhere from St. Louis- 
a matter not yet decided -- my idea is for the first year only 
and I have not attempted to cover the ultimate work of this 
Commission if it should extend over a period of tan years. 

My Recommendations are on page 9: and are as follows: 

2. Suggestions for future work: 

To the specialist in the various branches of steam en¬ 
gineering, many seemingly valuable lines of research will 
doubtless suggest themselves in connection with the burning 
of coal in boiler furnaces. It should, however, never be 
forgotten that there are certain fundamental principles apply¬ 
ing to this subject and that, while some further routine work 
may be desirable, a considerable amount of our energies should 
in the future be devoted to the former kind of research. 

The following matters are submitted by the director of 
this Division as suitable for our immediate consideration: 

RECOMMENDATIONS . 

1st. That one of the present Heine boilers be reset 
with plain hand fired furnace so as to maintain the same gen¬ 
eral ratios as at pre.sent, and reserved for such routine tests 
as it may be deemed advisable to make, thus making past and 
future routine tests comparable. 

2nd. That one of the Heine boilers be reset on new de- 




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signs (new "being prepared) so as to include several seemingly 
valuable new features, also providing for several easy changes 
in ratios and furnace construction and "baffling evidently 
desirable in connection with the economic burning of various 
kinds of coal. This includes provision for the use of stok¬ 
ers Linder this boiler as well as air tight setting. Should 
first advise a chain grate stoker. 

3rd. Arrange for and sec another type of water tube 
boiler (I should suggest first a 3. & W.). Plan the setting 
of this boiler with the following special features: 

(a) Airtight setting. 

(b) 3oiler set high. 

(c) Removable furnace -- this means variable grate area 
and height; also stoker facilities. 

(d) Independently supported stack. 

(e) Controlled draft. 

(f) Capacity 250 h.p. (2500 sq. ft. heating surface). 

(g) Easily changed baffling. 

Use this boiler for experiments planned to determine 
proper ratios and dimensions of furnaces for the various stand¬ 
ard coals when burned under this type of boiler at varying 
rates of combustion. A boiler thus set would be available 

for a vast amount of research work. 

\ 

4th. Construct a special "Long Combustion Chamber Furnace" 
equipped with chain grate stoker and connected to some one of 
the boilers. 







44 


This special furnace is advised for research work on the 
fundamental principles of combustion. The tests of various 
grades of coals in this furnace need not be of more than five 
hours duration. 100 tests cf coal should be made with this 
furnace. It should have a controlled air supply. In this 
furnace should be studied the effect on combustion of 

(a) Uniformity of size and mixture of sizes. 

(b) The percentage of free moisture. 

(c) Increasing percentage of slagging and iron slagging 
ashes. 

(d) Washed and unwashed coals. 

(e) Effect on temperatures and complete chemical union 
of thick and thin fuel beds. 

5th. Arrange for conducting certain fuel tests at the 
plants of private firms or experiment stations having approved 
facilities for carrying on desired tests. 

Work of this kind should be definite as to purpose and 
should be conducted in a manner approved by the Survey. 

6th. Arrange for such "expert field work" as may be 

i 

possible. 

This work should include: 

(a) The determination of the conditions of operation of 
many large typical power plants with various coals. 

(b) A study of the smoke problem with municipalities or 
corporations desiring to co-operate with the Survey. 

(c) Making of actual tests on some special appliances 








45 


or fuels, which could not properly be made with facilities at 
the central plant. 

(d) Tests of special fuels on locomotives in service. 

7th. Devise and have constructed specially accurate ap¬ 
paratus for determining hydro-car’bon losses. This is an im¬ 
portant problem and may be a large one. Its solution would 
have application not only in boiler furnaces but in the gas 
producer and gas engine and all metallurgical furnaces. 

Those are the recommendations. In general, we have 

« 

two Heine boilers. I would keep one of them in the same pro¬ 
portions as now. I would keep that for testing on new coals. 
There are mines that want a test by the Government, and that 
should be done in the same machinery used for these tests. I 
should like to reduce that work to a minimum as the field has 
been already pretty well covered. It would cost about $700. 
to put that boiler in shape for routine tests. 

How do you wish me to discuss this, Mr. Chairman? 

The CHAIRMAN: The meeting is in the hands of the members. 
I should say after the survey of the matter, that we should 
then take up the details. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: I have already stated the first 
position. The second is to go to work on one of the Heine 
boilers and arrange it so it will have some new features and 
make it possible to change the leading features of that boiler 
Change its grate area and anange that it could be placed over 
a stoker, so that having made all these tests under that boiler 





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46 


we should take say six standard coals and run through them, 
varying the leading proportions. 

Third -- and this is probably the parting point -- 
that is, whether we should adopt and set a new type of boiler. 
When I think of types, I think of the Heine and the 3. & W. , 
inasmuch as the flow of gases in the Heine is parallel and ir 
the 3. & li7. it crosses the tubes at right angles at all points 
That represents an entirely different method. The B. & W. is 
a very much used type of water tube boiler. It is a type 
railroad companies and manufacturers and people at large are. 

I think, interested in; and whether the B. & W. people would 
be inclined to present us with a boiler or not I am not sure, 
but I think from conversation with the Chicago people a short 
time ago, I think they would. 

Admiral RAE: I also think they will. 

Prof. BPuECKElTHIIXxE: Mr. Wells said there is no doubt 
but that his people will do the right thing by us, and when we 
come to want a boiler it is probable we will be able to get it. 
That boiler would be set as indicated here -- some of the 
principal items being indicated in this present paper. 

Prof. GOSS: What page is that on? 

Prof. BRECKEMRIDGE: Page 10, the third recommendation. 

That recommendation is the composite idea of Mr. Gibbs, Mr. 
Stott and myself and others I have talked with about this 
matter, as near as I could grasp it from communications I 
have received from these gentlemen. It is no particular 



















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47 


scheme with which I would he credited entirely, hut the dif¬ 
ferent members of the Commission I have conversed with think 
with me that it would he a good scheme. 

Mr. BARRUS: What do you mean by "easily changed baff Ling'? 

Prof. BHECJCSNPwIBGE: I call anything that deflects the 
path of the gas "baffling plates". The "easily changed" term 
goes because I have had to discuss the question of change of 
baffling in the standard boilers. It is a very difficult 

i 

thing to change. I think we might tell the B. & W. people 
to get up some design. 

Mr. GIBBS: "Easily changed and maintained" shouldn’t 
it be? 

i 

Prof. BRECKEIjHIIXjE: I think there might be some arrange¬ 
ment which could be filled with some liquid. 

Mr. GIBBS: Under clause "d" and "e" you have "independent- 

* 

ly supported stacks" -- what was that? 

Prof. BRECKINRIDGE: The stack on the present Heine 
setting is supported on part of the brickwork, and so I said 
"Let us get it on some foundation that will not crack;"our 
brickwork is cracked there. 

Mr. GIBBS: The next, "e" is "controlled draft". Do 
you intend to use a stoker? 

Prof. BRECKRifRIDGE: My idea is to have this boiler set 
two feet higher than they are ordinarily set, so that a stoker 
of one or tv/o types could be attached to the front so that a 
plain graue could be inserted in there. The framework could 














' 

’ ■ ' !•; ■ - 























. 

















48 


be supported on wheels of different diameters, which would 
allow us to raise and drop the grate. My general idea was to 
make it so that our furnace could be changed. The side walls 
could be extexided in with brick up to the narrowest grate are©.. 

Prof. GOSS: Do you have the question in mind of induced 
or forced draft? 

Prof. SHECKE17RIDGE: I suppose for induced draft. 

Prof. GOSS: In this connection, it struck me that it 
would line up more with inflow draft -- ash-pit draft, instead 
of induced draft. 

Admiral EAE: We have the Hardin system of forced draft, 
where the pressure is maintained in the ash-pits alone and 
it shuts off automatically in opening the door. We use what 
the English call the closed stock hole. 

Prof. BHECIGEHHIIXjrE: What pressure do you carry? 

\ 

Admiral HAE: Two inches of water is the highest. 

Prof. BRECXEERIDGE: You take a Honey stoker, you could 
box it in, but it would more easily represent stationary pract¬ 
ice on land. I think the difficulty of your leakage in your 
setting, with the air pressure under the grate, that would 
not obviate it, as you do not want the air to leak out any 
more than you want it to leak in. 

Mr. GIBBS: There is a neutral point beyond that infil¬ 
tration or that exudation. 

Prof. BKECKEHHIDGE: It would be difficult to arrange 
both ways in a small fan of 280 h.p. I should be glad to have 

































































































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49 


suggestions. It must not be so small or too large, for burn¬ 
ing much coal. 'What do you think of 250 h.p. as a unit, Mr. 
Stott? 

Mr. STOTT: I think it is a very good working size. 

Prof. BHECKEIJHIPGE: Admiral, what size unit does the 
ITavy use? 

Admiral RAE: It varies. In the cruisers we work up 
to 30,000 h.p. on the main engines alone, and we have 36 
boilers. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: Your boiler h.p. is probably one- 
half that? 

Admiral RAE: The actual horse power is up in the twenty 
thousands. You have to add to that the auxiliary. 

Prof. BRECKEIY^IDGE: The standard boiler horse power 
assumes an evaporation of 30 h.p.; your engine don't take 15 
h.p. 

Admiral RAE: Less than that. 

Prof. BRECKENRIIXxE: Probably 12 h.p. would cover the 
whole thing. 

Admiral RAE: I think 250 h.p. would be a very desirable 

unit. 

Prof. BRECICEITRIBGE: 210 is what we have been using, but 

250 is a standard B. & W. unit. That is another thing I had 
in mind. My idea would be to get up a set of designs and get 
the B. & W. people to submit a design and make this a boiler 
available for use five or six years hence, with changes from 








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time to time. This boiler should he used for experiments 
planned to determine proper ratios and dimensions of furnaces 
for the various standard coals when burned under this type 
of boiler at varying rates of combustion. 

Now '’standard coals", I do not know what they are; but 
I mean to say that there are perhaps six coals which fairly 
represent the varying characteristics of coal distributed 
over the United States, and if with the help of the Geological 
Survey we could select six of them and make experiments to 
find how each coal could be burned to the best advantage, we 
could see the best conditions under which certain standard 
coal can be burned most economically. The question comes up, 
Where are you to get your coals? 

(?) Dr. HOLMES: Will the law let us purchase any coals? 

Dr. HOLMES: Yes, sir. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: The question is whether the coal 
people would be as generous after having supplied one car¬ 
load. 

Prof. WHITE: The railroad companies transport it. In 
West Virginia they furnish the coal free. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: Now this third point is an important 
subject. 

The fourth proposition on page 11 is owing to our desire 
to make some investigations of the fundamental principles of 
combustion independent of any boiler. We have found it is 
very desirable to find out how far from the grate complete 

































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combustion takes place, -- what the length of the grate should 
be. We were talking about long combustion furnaces and Mr. 

Ray said they should be 100 feet long; I said 50 feet. 

I thought we should set this Heine boiler for the es¬ 
caping gases go through that boiler; and Mr. Ray suggested to 
have no boiler at all, but at the end of the combustion chamber 
to have a water chamber in which there was a spray of water 
which would cool the gases and absorb some of the constituents, 
and enable us to abstract the heat there. We want to know the 
fundamental principles and then use them in a design for boil¬ 
er furnaces. We must try this way. 

I should like to devote half of our time to this research 
work and half to what is called commercial work. Such a fur¬ 
nace would doubtless cost $4,000 to construct and change and 
fix it up. 

On the question of grate area -- I think 20 sq. ft. would 
be enough. I have put here in my memorandum "Is 20 sq. ft. 
of grate area big enough?" That is just half of the present 
Heine boiler grate area. The question is would 20 ft. be 
enough? Tests of four or five hours' duration would permit us 
to go over a great deal of ground in one year. 

Mr. BARRUS: How do you reach this? Gas Analysis? 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE; By gas analysis and temperatures.. 

4 

The fifth proposition reads: "Arrange for conducting 
certain fuel tests at the plants of private firms or experi¬ 
ment stations having approved facilities for carrying on de- 



52 


sired tests. Work of this kind should he definite as to pur¬ 
pose and should he conducted in a manner approved by the Sur¬ 
vey. 

It seems to me -- hut I haven't had tine to consult with 
Dr. Holmes -- hut I thought the Commission could set aside 
v'3,000 to help on experiments at stations already established. 
I had thought of certciin work that could he done at Purdue 
University or at the Altoona plant, or at Columbus. 

Dr. HOLMES: Might not that he extended to commercial 
plants? 

Prof. BKECIQEKR-IIXrE: That is covered in the next propo¬ 
sition, which reads as fellows: "Arrange for such expert 
field work as may he possible". 

/ 

"This work should include the determination of the con¬ 
ditions of operation of many large typical power plants with 
various coals; a study of the smoke problem with municipalit¬ 
ies and corporations desiring to co-operate with the Survey; 
the making of actual tests on some special appliances or fuels 
which could not properly he made with facilities at the cent¬ 
ral plant; and tests of special fuels on locomotives in ser¬ 
vice . 

My idea is we have twelve men at St. Louis who have been 
working on these fuel tests. They are abundantly able to go 
to certain large plants and study the conditions there. Not 
that they could help that plant so much, but to see what the 
conditions are that surround the power plant, and to go over 



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53 


the whole plant. 

In regard, to the study of the smoke problem, we could 
send a man to seme of the cities from time to time to co¬ 
operate with the local authorities or with some of the import¬ 
ant improvement clubs interested in this subject and say to 
them, "We will take your coal and see if we can burn it at our 
plant in order to determine the best conditions under which 
to burn coal." 

Mr. STOTT: Pittsburg would welcome that. 

Prof. BKECITEI'RIIXjE: I do not think we should advertise 
to stop the smoke nuisance in any city. We have no control 
over manufacturers or the owners and firemen. The man who 
runs our testing plant at St. Louis has it almost smokeless. 
Luring the World’s Pair we burned 78 different kinds of coal. 

Mr. RAY: We sometimes operated under smokeless conditions 
for a day. Sometimes you cannot make the lignites smoke, and 
I have seen other coals that you could not stop from smoking. 

Prof. BPJOCICEI'HIIDGB: The amount of money we could spend 
under that recommendation could be almost anything. My recom¬ 
mendation was' $3,000, and if we went to a city and helped 
them we could let them pay something of the cost of the work; 
and the same thing with the manufacturing plants, if we helped 
them any by making certain special devices, or if they wanted 
this thing and that thing tested they could pay for that. 

This Commission is not specially created to test patented de¬ 
vices, but if any patent was important or became widely used 


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we might make tests of it at a plant. 

The seventh proposition is, "To devise and have construct¬ 
ed specially accurate apparatus for determining hydro-carbon 
losses. This is an important problem and may be a large one. 
Its solution would have application not only in boiler fur¬ 
naces, but in the gas producer and gas engine and all metal¬ 
lurgical furnaces. This proposition, as indicated in my 
previous talk, is interesting in determining hydro-carbon 
losses. We might get some expert analyses on that. There 
are some special apparatus also which might be forth-coming. 

We find the Germans are largely interested in this problem, 
and we are looking the subject up. 

These are the things that it seems to me would be good 
things to do this year. 

Admiral RAE: Did you mention the amount of air *• 
necessary for ideal combustion? 

Prof. BRECKENHIDGE: That is one thing we have in mind 
when we say we want controlled air supply for this long fur¬ 
nace. Certain proportions of the air should go through the 
grate, certain proportions back of the grate, so that we 
might limit high furnace temperatures on the grate which cause 
slagging cn the grate, by putting part of the air supply in 
somewhere else. 

The CHAIBMAH: How let us go back to the first suggestion 
and discuss it or modify it or approve it, as you think best. 

Before we start in I v/ould like to say a word: Probably 





55 


this would go "better a little further on in the proceedings, 

"but in the studies of combustion which we have made -- I can¬ 
not rightly dignify them by the name of "studies 1 ' -- but in 
the observations we made we have been confronted by this 
thought which has been brought out here, that either you 
must devise a method to burn fuel so that whatever fuel you 
have is available for your work, or you must adopt your fur¬ 
naces to the fuel. 

2Tow, taking the latter suggestion: That is possible in 

4 

certain localities. On a locomotive it is out of the questioi 
the distance between the rails is fixed and the firebox is 
limited, and so that seems practically out of the question. 

So the designing engineer is between Scylla and Charybdis; 
even in a stationary plant the idea of getting room enough 
to do what one wants to do is a difficult thing. 

In Altoona this was brought out some years ago, and that 
is where we stranded, namely, on the importance of having a 
furnace adapted to the fuel. So we took the other end of the 
question, namely, is it possible to use all fuels in any one 
kind of furnace? It seems to me that is a fundamental dis¬ 
tinction which we must draw. Take the coals west of the 
Susquehanna and 15 percent of them is volatile matter;a littl 
farther west in the mountains and you 'nave 20 to 22 percent 
volatile matter; yet a little farther, near Latrobe and Greens- 
berg, and the coal they have there contains from 26 to 30 per¬ 
cent of volatile matter; and in the Pittsburgh district it is 

























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56 


from 37 tc 38 percent of volatile matter; in Illinois and Ind¬ 
iana it is 42, 44 and 48 percent of volatile matter. 

Now those coals differ in tlieir capacity, and the ques¬ 
tion now is: "Can we make a furnace to burn all those coals"? 
Or are we up against the proposition that our study had letter 
he put on the question of treating the fuel in such a way that 
we can burn any kind of coal? Does the stoker offer any poss¬ 
ibilities? Does pulverized fuel offer any possibility of 
burning all kinds of coal in one furnace? I think the fourth 
proposition, the study of the principles of combustion, is 
one of the first points on which we want information. 

Dr. II0LM3S : It seems to me that is the fundamental 
question to be solved. What we want is to have these people 
devise some system which will indicate to users of coal in 
the United States how they are to get the highest efficiency 
out of the coal they have to use. 

The CHAIRMAN: Transportation reasons make it impossible 
to bring certain coals ? to certain places. You must use cer¬ 
tain coals in certain regions. 

Mr. BUSH: I think you will be surprised at the results 
obtained from burning sized coals in stationary plants. I 
have conducted a lot of tests on that point. In Illinois we 
have a great deal of slack, which was ordinarily thrown away, 
and by putting in washers there -- we use Ho. 5, and that is 
the easiest coal to dispose of with them -- by putting in 
washers I was surprised to note that we got from 1500 to 2000 





57 


more heat units out of that "buckwheat coal than ordinary run- 
oi-nine coal. So I think those without experience in running 
sized coal will experience a great deal of surprise at the 
results. 

The smaller this fuel is the less smoke, and the more 
perfect the combustion, and hence higher efficiency. Of course 
the larger sizes of coal are better adapted for locomotive 
uses. It is poor economy to try snail coals on them; so if 
we could get the stationary plants educated to the point where 

f 

they understood it was not necessary to burn a lot of coal, 
they would find the smaller sizes better. 

I would like to see this Survey determine the relative 
values of these different size coals, for it will result in 
solving the smoke problem as well as prevent waste. 

Prof. WHITE: Would it pay to briquette those smaller 
sizes? 

Prof. BRECICEHRIPGE: Ho, sir. The buckwheat coal in Ill¬ 
inois, when you have from 45 to 53 percent of volatile matter, 
you can take that buckwheat coal and get better results; but 
it don’t pay to briquette them for steam. 

Prof. WHITE: I was speaking about locomotives. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGrE: If 7/e could get the public educated 
up to using the smaller size, it would be well. We have shown 
that this slack briquetted with tar gave better results than 
lump coal; but it is a question whether you can get an appro¬ 
priate binder and a proper machine to briquette them. When 




















































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58 


you try to briquette slack, in competition with, lump coal under 
3 inch screen, you cannot compete with it. 

Prof. BRECTEQMTRIDGE: That was one of our recommendations, 
under the head of "Uniformity of size". The results of burn¬ 
ing coal of a uniform size will surprise people. 

The CIIAIRJUJT: Is it the sentiment of the meeting that 
the first recommendation should be adopted? namely,, "Resolved 
that one of the present Heine boilers be reset with a plain 
hand-fired furnace so as to maintain the same general ratios 
as at present, and reserved for such routine tests as it may 
be deemed advisable to make, thus making past and future rout¬ 
ine tests comparable". 

In other words, this means that this body approves of the 
work done, and that this appliance we have been using is worthy 
of preservation for continuing in the same line of work. Is 
there any discussion? 

Dr. HOLMES: This plant would remain in its present con¬ 
dition for from three to five months. 

Prof. BKECKEURILGE: If we pass this recommendation it 
will mean that' we are to reserve one boiler for future use. 

Prof. GOSS: I do not think I would make it hinge on the 
Heine boiler. 

Prof. GIBBS: Except that we have already got them. 

Prof. GOSS: I agree. 

The CHAIRMAU: How shall we put our recommendations in 
force? Shall we do it by viva voce vote after we have dis- 
























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59 


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cussed, or shall we ask each man his opinion and then take a 
vote? After we have discussed the thing over we must take 
some positive action. 

Prof. GOSS: I move that recommendation ho. 1 he approved 

Mr. STOTT: I second the motion. 

The CHAIRMAN: You have heard the motion. Is there any 
further discussion? 

Dr. HOLMES: What is your opinioh, Prof. Jacobus? 

Prof. JACOBUS: I think we had better keep the identical 
boiler, as it eliminate? any question in tying one set of 
tests to the others. 

The CHAIRMAN: Do you feel the same way, Mr. Barr us? 

Mr. Barrus; Yes, sir. 

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Stott? 

Mr. STOTT: I seconded the motion. 

The CHAIRMAN: Admiral Rae? 

Admiral RAE: I think it is the proper thing to do. 

The CHAIRMAN: It is so ordered. 

(continuing), Now, coming to the second recommendation, 
which is, "That one of the Heine boilers be reset on new de¬ 
signs now being prepared, so as to include several seemingly 
valuable features, also providing for several easy changes in 
ratios and furnace construction and baffling evidently desir¬ 
able in connection with the economic burning of various kinds 
of coal. This includes provision for the use of stokers under 
this boiler as well as airtight settings. We would firsc ad- 














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60 


vise a chain grate stoker. 

Will you discuss this recommendation of those in charge 
of the Boiler Division? Mr. Gibbs? 

Mr. GIBBS: I think that is right. You retain this as it 
is the parallel flow, with or without the stoker. Finally 
you get the cross-flow type under recommendation No.3. 

The CHAIRMAN: This recommendation puts into practical 

% 

use the experience of those in charge of the work on this sub¬ 
ject. Is that right, Prof. Breckenridge? 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: Yes, sir. We should modify the fur¬ 
nace conditions for certain kinds of coal. 

Mr. STOTT: In the last paragraph you advise a chain 
grate stoker. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE; That will work on non-caking coal, 
but when you get that you are bringing another feature into 
the whole problem. 

Mr. BUSK: What about a coal with a high percentage of 
sulphur? 

Prof. Breckenridge: I suggested a chain grate stoker be¬ 
cause it is adapted for burning coals around St. Louis and 
Illinois, and I feel we would be able to get coal in that near 
vicinity for these experiments easily; and then we could put 
in the Roney stoker and get non-caking coals at a greater dis¬ 
tance from the plant. 

The CHAIRMAN: Prof. Jacobus how does that second propo¬ 


sition strike you? 


/ 












61 . 




Prof. JACOBUS: That seems to me to be all right. I 
think we should not tie down to any definite stoker # I think 
we should just say "stoker" and not tie down the Boiler Divi¬ 
sion to "a chain grate stoker". 

Prof. BBTCXEUKIDGE: I have no special reason for stating 
a chain graoe stoker. 

Prof. GOSS: Does not the Honey stoker work well with 
the Western coal? 

Prof. BRECTCEHBIDGB: Yes, sir. I should be in favor of 
putting in a Honey stoker under one of them. 

Prof. GOSS: I suggest, then, that the last clause be 
eliminated; and then we will approve of it. 

Prof. WHITE: That is a matter of detail that should be 
left to the people doing the actual work of testing. 

Dr. IiOLMHS: You are liable to use this work in eastern 

s 

coal and next week a we stern coal. 

The CKAIBEAT7: Hr. Barrus -- Have you anything to say on 

that? 

Hr. BABHUS: I think that is in a satisfactory condition. 

Mr. Q/JEHBAU: It seems to me that if the last sentence is 
eliminated, with the understanding that it is up to them to 
use their judgment, I think it would be satisfactory. They 
should determine what is desirable. 

Prof. BHECKEHHIDGE: The chain grate stoker people may 
make it harder for us to put it in if it must be used. I have 
no objection to leaving it out. 





62 


no objection to leaving it out. 

The CKAIRMA2T: Anything further to be said? 

Prof. WHITE: Hr. Chairman, I move we adopt the second 
recommendation, with the omission of the last sentence. 

The CHAIRMAIT: Is there any comment on the motion? If 
not, all in favor will please say "Aye"; contrary minded "no M . 
It seems to be carried. It is so ordered. 

(Chairman continuing) The next is the third recommenda¬ 
tion, which appears on page 10, and is as follows: 

"3rd. Arrange for and set another type of water tube 
boiler (I should suggest first a B. & W. ) Plan the setting 
of this boiler with the following special features: 

(a) Air-tight setting. 

* 

(b) Boiler set high. 

(c) Removable furnace -- this means variable grate area 
and height; a3.so stoker facilities. 

(d) Independently supported stack. 

(e) Controlled draft. 

(f) Capacity 250 h.p. (2500 sq. ft. heating surface). 

(g) Easily changed baffling. 

Use this boiler for experiments planned to determine prop¬ 
er ratios and dimensions of furnaces for the various standard 
coals when burned under this type of boiler at varying rates 
of combustion. A boiler thus set would be available for a 
vast amount of research work." 

Do you wish to discuss that first proposition of this 







































































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63 


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recommendation? -- Shall it he a 3. & W. boiler or some other 
one? 

Mr. GIBBS: Mr. Stott in his letter has covered that 
point very well. He said that it is a type; that many concerns 
are making boilers nearly like it; and that you find them 
scattered throughout the country. 

Mr. STOTT: I meant the B. & W. type. 

Prof. BRECKEBRIDGE: It is the type I am talking about. 

When I say type I refer to the straight tube boiler so long 
known as the 3. & W. type. 

Prof. GOSS: Mr. Stott referred to that in his letter. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: That is what I referred to when I 
stated that this was a composite view of Mr. Stott, Mr. Gibbs 

and several others. 

% 

Mr. BUSH: Is it planned to instal them at the present 
location, or at the place where you are to move? 

Prof. BRECIO&IRIDGE: That would be the next installation. y 
The CHAIRMAB: Any other comments on the question of type. 
Dr. HOLMES: Admiral, is that near the marine type? 

Admiral RAE: It is the same thing. 

The CHAIRMAN: There are certain special features con¬ 
nected with that, and the first of them is "air-tight setting". 
Any remarks on this point? 

Mr. STOTT: That is a very obvious improvement. 

The CHAIRMAN: Does anybody want to suggest how the air¬ 


tight setting 3hall be secured? 



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64 


Mr. GIBBS: Mr. Stott covered that in his letter. 

Prof. BKECICEHRIDGE: Let us have that letter. 

Prof. GOSS: This is in part discussion of a suggestion 
of mine which is not germane to this discussion. 

Mr. GIBBS: (producing letter of Mr. Stott) -- I hardly 
know where to begin reading in this letter. 

Prof. BTG5CKEERIDGE: Start from the beginning. 

Mr. GIBBS: It is dated Hew York, July 18, 1906, and 

addressed to Dr. Holmes: It says, "My Dear Dr. Holmes: 

Heferring to yours of July 2nd, and also your previous letter 
of June 6th, to both of which I was prevented from replying 
earlier by press of work, would say that I quite agree with 
Mr. Gibbs in his point of view in reference to the advisabil¬ 
ity of using a boiler of the Babcock-Y/ilcox type. I would 

suggest that the boiler should be placed at the extreme height 

t 

from the floor and that the grate should be mounted in such 
manner that it could be raised or lowered, as desired. This 
could be very easily accomplished. 

I am further of the opinion that the brickwork of the 
boiler setting should be encased in a cast-iron casing, which 

i 

in turn should be either lined with asbestos or carbonate of 
magnesia blocks, in order to prevent infiltration of air 
through the brickwork. Actual tests of the B. & W. boilers 
with brickwork setting in one of our plants has shown that 

* t 

there is infiltration of over 10 percent of air through the 
brickwork alone. With the B. & W. boilers, as you are prob- 






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65 


ably aware, the entire weight is carried from above. In other 
words, the boiler is suspended from the beams and columns. 

This lends itself admirably to the purpose above mentioned, 

4 

and as this type of boiler is in use in at least 90 percent 
of the modern power plants, it would seem that it would be of 
more use to the profession generally than a test with any 
locomotive type of boiler, which is absolutely obsolete for 
this purpose. There is the further advantage in the use of 
the B. & V/. boiler, namely, the pyrometer readings can be got 
very readily at various points of the furnace and amongst the 
tubes, giving valuable information as to the conditions of 
combustion at various points. 

I would also suggest the advisability of using the auto¬ 
matic stoker, such as the Honey stoker, rather than hand-fir¬ 
ing. 

The first reason for this is that with hand-firing so 
much depends upon the individuality of the man that the re¬ 
sults are not comparable with those obtained under apparently 
similar conditions; secondly, an automatic stoker will give 
from day to day a practically uniform result with a very wide 
variety of coal. This stoker could really be arranged to be 
carried on vertical screw thread shafts, so as to be raised 
or lowered at will without more than an hour’s delay. 

I am very distinctly of the opinion that each particular 

i 

variety of coal requires a different type of combustion chamb¬ 
er. Thus, with anthracite a comparatively small combustion 













































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V 


66 


chamber only is necessary, whereas with the bituminous and 
semi-bitluminous, a larger combustion chamber is required in 
almost the same ratio as there is volatile matter in the coal. 

The CHAIRMAI': This recommends the air-tight setting and 
then suggests to incase that in memetal lined walls. 

Prof. GOSS: To be ironclad, sheet iron casing. 

The CIIAIHMAU: Any further suggestions about the aid- 
tight setting? If not, we will pass on to "Boiler set high". 


Is there any comment? 

Mr. GIBBS: I have an idea that the boiler should have 
a sole plate, that is, supported from above. The ideaw was 
that the grate and furnace was to raise and lower, as he said,- 
the firing platform and the stoker and the immediate furnace 
around it. That leaves a section to be built in. That would 
be put in very easily, still leaving the idea of the sole plate 
with tlie air-tight setting above, so that you would have some¬ 
body to put that in or tal<e it out. I do not think that dif¬ 
fers much from Mr. Stott’s idea, except that his idea was to 
have the grate move up and down. Clinkers would get in and 


prevent it moving up and down. 

Mr. STOTT: Undoubtedly you would have to clean it out. 

Mr. GIBBS: That is the idea running in my mind. 

Prof. BilLiCKBXTHIDGE: I have actually set a boiler in 
the last year with a specially high furnace, and you can run 
in one type or another in that arrangement and bolt it. You 
would have to arrange that in sections, like, say a Globe- 











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67 


Werneeke bookcase. 

The CHAIRMAN: Do you want to say anything about how high 
the boilers should be set? 

Mr. GIBBS: Mr. Stott has some experience on that. 

Mr. STOTT: I can give you the figures on that. 

Prof. BHECICSI'IHIDGE: We would advise the B. & W. people 
to be careful to put it high enough to take any type of stok¬ 
er. 

Mr. GIBBS: That is not high enough to give you complete 
combustion. The Honey stoker alone is not sufficient to re¬ 
quire the maximum heat. 

Prof. GOSS: You want a large furnace space above the 
Roney stoker? 

Mr. RAY: Those streams of gas which most need to be 
burned have the shortest travel in the tube. It is further 
from the bottom of the grate where the volatile matter is 
burned than it is at the top. 

Mr. STOTT: The arrangement of turning the boiler end 
to end from the usual arrangement will give a long combustion 
chamber; and that is worth thinking about. 

The CKAIKMAR: Any further remarks about the height at 
which the boiler should be set? If not, then we will take up 
the next detail, "Removable Furnace" -- this means variable 
grate area and height; also stoker facilities." 

Any remarks on the question of removable furnace? 

I do not know exactly what is covered by "Removable Fur- 





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68 


nace." 

Prof. BRECKElTxlIDGE: You have an idea of the chain grate 
f urnaces? 

The CHAIRMAN: Yes, sir. 

hr of . BHECKEI'j RIDGE: My idea is to have it sc that with 
a little attention to detail one furnace can he taken out and 
another put in. It seems to me that is essential. 

The CHAIRMAN: "Independently supported stack." 

Prof. GOSS: That is a detail. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDCrE: Mr. Ray suggested that, owing to 
the character of our brickwork. I wish you would express some 
opinion as to the matter of stack. Our Heine boilers should 
have a stack 120 feet high. We are talking now about a con¬ 
trolled draft. I rather think from the controlled draft, we 
could use the induced system or a pressure under the grate, 
and have a stack say 40 feet high. I would like an expression 
of opinion as to whether we should run with an induced draft 
or a stack. 

Suppose we agree on an induced draft and then if we 
select that, then we will have a short stack. 

Mr. STOTT: You will find much less trouble. 

The CHAIRMAN: Is it or is it not true that difference 
of height in stack makes some difference with different coal?-- 
That is, some coals make enormous quantities of smoke with a 
tall stack? 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: Oh, yes; but the induced draft lets 








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69 


you regulate that. 

Mr. STOTT: It is usually provided to have a pressure of 
1 H water column. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further remarks about the stack? If 
not, let us take up the next item, "Controlled draft". Prof. 
Jacobus, what do you think about that subject of controlled 
draft? 

Prof. JACOBUS: I think it is very well to have that 

/ 

controlled draft and have it regulated, and the idea of hav¬ 
ing an enclosed fire room for pressure draft is also a good 
one. 

Mr. GIBBS: Do you consider the economiser is necessary 
to bring the temperature down? 

Prof. JACOBUS: No, sir. 

Mr. BUECKENBIDGE: You will perhaps have to have a hollow 
shaft and keep it water cooled. 

The CHAIRMAN: The capacity of the boiler is 250 h.p. 
with 2500 sq. ft. of heating surface, I understand. Are 
there any further remarks on that subject? 

Dr. HOLMES : In the case of a gas engine, I talked with 
the Westinghouse people about 235 h.p. unit. They recommended 
500 as a unit. They say that 250 h.p. is below the unit 
used for practical commercial purposes, and they thought these 
tests should be on that unit. I think 500 is their lowest; I 
think they run from 500 h.p. to 6000. 





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70 


I-'ror. GOSS: That applies to the engines and not to the 
“boiler. Moreover, 250 h.p. is a commercial unit for a large 
numb e r of p1ant s. 

j-'he CilAIHllAlT: The next is "Easily changed baffling". 

Prof. GOSS: That is an important point. 

hr. GIBBS: \7ould you intend that easy baffling to mean 
the bridge wall? 


Prof. 3KECKENRIDGE: Yes, sir. Any arrangement for mix¬ 
ing gases at any place between the bridge wall and the stack. 

Prof. GOSS: There is one remark: It is to the effect 
that great caution is to be exercised to prevent getting too 
many things adjustable, and thus being too widely adjustable. 

I make it a point net to use the same boiler for two things. 

There will be a good deal of actual construction, first 
in one form and then in the other. It will crop out in the 
most surprising way. 

The CHAIHilAIT: Will any one suggest any other 
characteristics or peculiar features. Haven’t you a suggestiorf 
Mr. Bush, as to that? 

Mr. BUSH: I think that covers it. 

Mr. STOTT: Under the question of controlled draft comes 
the question of firing according to the condition of the fire. 

Prof. BHECmmiDGE: Mr. Hay, will you tell what we did 
with our conditions there at St, Louis? 

Mr. Barrus: I suggest leaving out "g", Easily changed 
baffling; and if any changes are to be made in the baffling, 


















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71 


that the work he rebuilt. I think if the baffling is changed 
it won’t accomplish its object. 

Prof. BRECKEHRIDGE: If anything can be done to that 
boiler to make the baffling easier, we will do it provided 
special construction is not needed. 

Mr. STOTT: How about leaving that out and let them do 


it if they can. 


Prof. BPECHEKRIBGE: That is a very good suggestion. 

Mr. BARHUS: I would like to make a suggestion which 
probably belongs nearer to the beginning, and that is that 
this additional boiler shall not be confined to a 3. & W.type. 
It seems to me it might be well to take an ordinary return- 
tube boiler and make some experiment with it. 


Prof. BRECKBHPIPGE: My idea was to do this first and 


then do that at some other time. 


Mr. BUSH: I think we should have a test on the ordin¬ 
ary re turn-tube boiler, as there is an area where we are un¬ 
able to use the water-tube boiler, and you would cut off a 
large number of people from having interest in or deriving 
value from the tests. 

Prof. GOSS: What we are after is tc get certain rela¬ 
tions and constants which we might use in the setting of any 
boiler, and we can get them more easily by water-tube boiler. 
If that view is accepted as to the purpose, then it is well 
to use a water-tube boiler. 

Mr. BAHRUS: I suggested that for the reason that my 




72 


experience is that the B. & W. "boiler gives a lower effi¬ 
ciency than a horizontal return-tube boiler under the sane 
working conditions; and if these tests should show a compar¬ 
atively low efficiency, it might be well to try some other 
plan so as to see where we stand. 

Prof. GOSS: It seems to me that the difference of effi¬ 
ciency is due to incidental qualities; as, for example, the 
greater exposure of brickwork in the B. & W. than in the return- 
tube boiler; but when we get the ideal conditions to be made 
in these changes, we will then get the B. & W. people to sub¬ 
mit a design. 

The CHAIHMA1T: Is the water an element in differences of 
efficiency? 

Prof. GOSS: Yes, sir. But that is not a question we 
are interested in particularly at this time. 

Mr. BUSH: I presume any method that improves the effi¬ 
ciency of the B. & W. boiler would apply also to the ordin¬ 
ary return tubular boiler. 

Prof. GOSS: Perhaps not. If the exposed brickwork is 
less, the chances for saving by iron casing and padding would 
be less. 

The CHAIRMAN: What is the condition of the tubes in the 
Heine boiler in using St. Louis water? 

Mr. HAY: Since they have been cleaning the water with 
alum, lime and sulphate and we run a turbine through the 
tubes now until they shine. 



























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73 


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The CHAIRMAN: Is there any further discussion on this? 

If not, we will take up the next aspect of this third propo¬ 
sition, namely, to use this boiler for experiments planned 
to determine proper ratios and dimensions of furnaces for 
the various standard coals when burned under this type of 
boiler at varying rates of combustion. 

Prof. BRECIQEIHRIDGE: Let me call your attention to ex¬ 
perimental work on the standard coals. 

Mr. BARRUS: Why not make that read instead of standard 
coals, "representative coal"? 

Prof. BRECKENRI3XJE: That is a g^od change. 

Prof. GOSS: I think the M. E. Code specifies certain 
standard coal. 

Dr. HOLMES: It is difficult to select even a repre¬ 
sentative coal; coals differ even in the same mine. 

Prof. BHECKEHRILGE: I had in mind, when I now say "re¬ 
presentative coal", I mean coals from certain districts where 
* 

the output is very large. 

Mr. BAKRUS: That would cover coals with different per¬ 
centages of volatile matter. 

Prof . BHECXENRIDGE: Yes. 

Prof. GOSS: As different fields were taken? 

Prof. 3RECKSNRIDGE: Yes, sir. 

Mr. GIBBS: We find in our stationary boiler that owing 
to getting one kind of coal one time, and another kind of coal 
another time, that we had to p>ut in presses so that we can 


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74 


control the size, get uniiormity of size. 

Prof. 3RECKEMKIBGE: That is contained in my recomnen- 
dation on Additional Equipment; that we should instal a 

crusher and a screen, so that we could know what size we are 

✓ 

using . It hardly comes in with that particular thing. 

Mr. GIBBS: We can put in one crusher for all your boil¬ 
ers. 

Prof. GOSS: Isn't that a piece of apparatus just the 
same as a pyrometer is? You have an item there on the sizing 
of coal. 

Dr. HOLMES: Why not add in the items required for addi¬ 
tional equipment, the crushers? 

Prof. BKECKEEHIDCxS: Perhaps it would go better in the 
fourth paragraph. 

The CHAIRMAH: The question is on approving recommen¬ 
dation Ho. 3. Is there any further discussion? 

Mr. BARKUS: I would like to add to items 2 and 3 that 

in arranging the sitters on the side wall, that it be done so 

/ 

that you can look in and see the whole surface of the grate. 
Mr. KAY: All of these would have them. 

Prof. BRECKEHRIDGE: Side observation doors. 

We could make an additional item under "h" and call it 
"Side observation doors". 

Mr. BAHRUS: Make it "g"; for they have stricken out the 
former "g". 

Prof. BRECKEHRIDGE: Hot only that, but we have in addi- 








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75 


tion to those observation doors 2" gas pipes you can take off 
and look in. We will make that Side Observation Doors "g". 

The CHAIRMAN: If you do not care to discuss the matter 
any 1 urtlier, will some one make a motion that this recom¬ 
mendation be approved? 

Prof. GOSS: I so move, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. STOTT: I second the motion. 

The CHAIRMA5: You have heard the motion. All in favor 
say "Aye"; contrary minded, "Do". It is carried and so or¬ 
dered. 

We will now take up the fourth item; namely; 

4th: Construct a special "Long Combustion Chamber Fur¬ 
nace' , equipped with chain grate stoker and connected to some 
one of the boilers. 

This special furnace is advised for research work on the 
fundamental principles of combustion. The tests of vari¬ 
ous grades of coals in this furnace need not be of more than 
five hours duration. 100 tests of coal should be made with 
this furnace. It should have a controlled air supply. In 
this furnace should be studied the effect on combustion of 

(a) Uniformity of size and mixture of sizes. 

(b) The percentage of free moisture. 

(c) Increasing percentage of slagging and non-slagging 
ashes. 

(d) Washed and unwashed coals. 

(e) Effect on temperatures and complete chemical union 













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76 


of thick and thin fuel beds. 1 ' 

Now the long combustion chamber furnaces -- any remarks 
about that? 

Prof. GOSS: It is my understanding that this is to ex¬ 
tend the study with the equipment we have been considering. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: It says "and perhaps connected with". 
We were discussing the possibility of taking care of the heat 
at the end of a long combustion chamber by a spray of water 
which would absorb the heat and some of the constituents, and 

this would determine the heat and the constituents of the 

( 

gases leaving that end of the chamber. I cannot lay any such 
plan or design before you now, but we can lay plans to con¬ 
struct such a thing and submit it to a committee appointed 
to consider the plan. 

Prof. GOSS: My understanding is you propose to put in 
a chamber there and in that chamber to put in baffling of the 
kind you want? 

Mr. RAY: Yes, sir, and when we want it. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: We can tell when combustion is com¬ 
plete by analysis on the way, and by temperature gradings. 

Mr. BARRUS: It seems to me very important to pass those 
gases through a boiler to ascertain the heat they contain. 

Prof. JACOBUS: It seems to me that by making this long 
furnace and getting it away from the boiler you get conditions 
not found in practice. In most boilers the absorption of the 
heat is very rapid. In reality you would be testing a sort 





















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77 


of Dutch oven affair and getting efficiency under those con¬ 
ditions; whereas the testing of the matter up to that is just 
as important. I agree it does not make much difference in 
getting the efficiency of the "boiler, hut I think there should 
he some special device to mix those gases, and to do that you 

should cool them first. So I think you should stick to a 

% 

boiler and mix them and then get the final analysis. 

In what order does the Professor propose to make this? 
Prof. BRECKEHHIDGE: I should say in the order indicated 
would he about the proper order to go about that. 

Mr. BAPJRUS: You mean under the head of Item 2? Then 
when those are finished you go ahead under Item 3? 

Prof. BRECKEiPRIDGE: i\ T o; hut to" go ahead and get ready 
as scon as possible all through. 

Prof. GOSS: There will be simultaneous tests going on? 
Prof. BEECKENHIDGE: Yes, sir. 

Mr. Stott: We can get a species of reverberatory fur¬ 
nace. The temperatures reached under a large ordinary boiler 
are sufficient to ruin it by burning it down. So this Dutch 

oven would not be "P r a cticable. 

Mr. RAY: I think there is a little misconception about 
the fundamental purposes we have in mind under this fourth 
item. 

It seems to be the general opinion that in future the 
percentage of power produced by gas engines will increase, 
nevertheless the average amount of power produced by boilers 


























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78 


will increase, though the percentage may not be as great. 

And an increasing number of coals will be used. Besides the 

use under boilers there are many cases where gas is used for 

0 

fuel, where coal might be used. One instance is the case of 
the reverberatory furnaces for melting pig iron in large found¬ 
ries. Many of the large foundries found they work cheaply 
and that they can regulate the chemical composition of the 
irons they get out, but it takes more skill. 

4 

I. cite this as an instance of the opinion that in fu¬ 
ture a larger increasing percentage of fuel in the country will 
be burned for the purpose of reducing metals, of which very 
little is known. In the boiler we do not want extremely high 
temperatures. There they are bad things. Of course, that 
would not apply to blast furnaces or pig iron furnaces. 

Prof. BHECICEiIRIDGE : I am glad you mentioned that, as 
I thought this investigation under the fourth recommendation 
would be helpful to other manufacturing interests. 

The CHAIRMAN: Prof. Munroe, can you throw some light 
on this question? 

Prof. MUEROE: I have been particularly interested in 
the discussion of this part of the project, and now that it 
is brought out and the object is to seek the application to 
other purposes than generation of power, I would say that I 
quite agree with Mr. Bay in his statement that there are con¬ 
tinually increasing necessities for experimental work at high 
temperatures -- at chemical and metallurgical temperatures; 


































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79 


and the possibility of their "being developed from cheap coal 
is both fascinating and important. 

The problem is to learn hew to p;resent the combustible 
substances to the oxidising agent so as to produce the great¬ 
est heat with the least loss by radiation and comvection, and 
this recommendation for building a long combustion chamber 
seems to be a suggestion in the right direction. 

I had thought of speaking on subdivision 4; but not at 
this time. It was on the first subdivision of the topje 
which seemed to me to be the most important. 

Prof. LORD: It strikes me this is one way of separ¬ 
ating the three functions of the furnace. As I understand 
it, an ordinary boiler has three functions; the first is to 
decompose the coal and make it fit for combustion; the next 
is to mix it with air and produce heat; and the third is to 
take the highly heated substance and extract the heat from it. 

Here is a proposition that I think is a wonderfully in¬ 
teresting tiling. 

One chemical suggestion is that all chemical reactions 
consume time, and their rate is largely a function of mixed 
masses. How, here this long combustion chamber, it seems to 
me, should be so arranged as not merely to mix the gases, but 
to maintain them at a sufficiently high temperature to insure 
the completion of the reaction before cooling takes place; and 
that that time function, as well as the mass relation be taken 


into consideration. 







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80 


It is not a problem in reference to the length of flame; 
but I think the question of maintaining temperatures until re¬ 
action takes place and before cooling sets in. In other 
words,/ given coal that produces a certain quality of gas, that 

gas mixes with a certain quantity of air; then what is the 
• % 

relation between temperature maintained during combustion and 
the time required to complete the re-action. 

It strikes me this question will determine the space 
required for re-action «*- this question of the size of the 
combustion chamber. 

The CHAIKMAH: Some years ago I was in Russia looking 
up the question of using oil as fuel for locomotives, and I 
met Mr. Urquhart, the first to do that. Ke put into his 
tubes "retarders”, as he called them, consisting principally 
of an iron rod inserted into tubes, and filling up a portion 
of the space in the tube, and kept in position by little studs 
or projections that spaced it equally on all sides. The 
examination of those rods after some service indicated from 
the changing appearance of the end of the rod that probably 
combustion took place in the tube from 8 to 10 inches, but 
beyond that it seemed to cease. 

So the question is, don’t we send the combusting gases 
into a locomotive flue long before this re-action takes place? 

Mr. KAY: In the Heine boiler, if forced active combus¬ 
tion takes place, from 5 to 15 feet after the gases enter the 
boiler, there is a difference in chemical analysis as it goes 





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81 


on, and there is more CO 2 with the heat produced. 

Prof. LORD: The tubes where they cool the gases will 
check that combination to a certain extent and cool them be¬ 
low the admission point of the gases. 

Mr. RAY: And produce smoke. 

Prof. LORD: Rot so much smoke, but HCO. 

Mr. RAY: We have the CO due to the reduction of the 
CO 2 by the red-hot carbon sticking in the tube 

Prof. 3HECICERRIDGE: In this thesis I referred to of 
Mr. Kreisinger, this question of the time element in the pro¬ 
duction of gases is treated, and he says that a certain amount 
of time is necessary. 

Prof. GOSS: The time function is mixed with the activity 
of the intermixing currents. 

Mr. B ARHUS: Would it not be instructive to make the 
experiments under item 4 before the others are carried out? 

Prof. BRECICEhRIDGE: The trouble we have is we get our 
coal daily. We get a carload a day and we have to use the 
coal and be prepared to set up our equipment and make such 
use of it when the coal comes as our facilities will allow. 

Mr. RAY: For the work set forth in the fourth recom¬ 
mendation, the men have to be trained in physical chemistry*, 
and then when you have finished it is a problem of ultimate 
analysis; and I think we should have Prof. Lord take up the 

co p. 

Ki 

I am told it takes an expert chemist weeks of practice 












































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82 


to become expert in thix work. That is, it would be many 
weeks before a man could be trained to make these experiments 
with any degree of accuracy. 

Prof. GOSS: Would not our progress be slow if we tried 
to finish one set before starting the other? 

Mr. KAY: You learn from one how to properly do the other. 

Prof. GOSS: What is the motion? 

The CHAIRMA2T: We have only the question before us of the 
advisability of constructing a special long combustion chamber 
furnace equipped with chain grate stoker and connected 
to one of the boilers. 

Prof. MUiTKCE: Mr. CK A IRMAS'; that seems to me to be of 
fundamental importance. In listening to the statement of the 
400 tests made, it appears that the determinations are re¬ 
ferred back to the analytical and calorimetric tests of the 
Code; and this depends on ’whether the sample is a true sample 
of the coal being tested. The nearer the coal is reduced to 
uniformity in size, the more certain of getting a sample that 
is uniform. It has been said that whefce coal of uniform size 
has been used, that the results which have been obtained are 
surprising. I think advantage is to be had in both of these 
directions, and therefore it is well for us to determine the 
value of uniformity of size as well as what particular size 
is most advantageous. 

Prof. BKECXENRIDGE: In my list of questions I have said: 
Should experiments be made in pulverized fuel this year? I 






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83 


would say "Mo 1 *, at the existing plants; and if at other plants, 

i 

"Yes"; if the people operating then co-operate to the extent 
of settling the hills. 

Mr. BUSH: Out on the Pacific coast a nan with plenty 
of money undertook the experiment of pulverizing this coal, 
and he get splendid results out of pulverized coal; hut he 
spent $45,000 or $50,000 in the work. The pulverized coal 
has to he "bolted as fine as any flour, and the cost of reduc¬ 
ing the coal to dust and the danger of handling it; and the 
necessity of keeping it dry mere than lost what was gained. 

Prof. "WHITE: There is a large plant I know of whefce 
they use the Upper Ereepcrt coal, which has a great deal of 
slaty matter in it; and they put up a pulverizer for that. 

They make coke of it and have, "been very well pleased with the 
result. The Maryland Steel Company takes 250 tons of that 
stuff a day. The product is so much more uniform as coke than 
as coal that the Maryland Steel Company reports it as good as 
any they have ever used. 

Mr. BPJECKEIHIIDGE: I understand it costs over a dollar 
a ton to pulverize it in the experimental plant Mr. Bush spoke 
of out on the Pacific coast. 

Prof. GOSS: My understanding is that with the pulverized 
coal there was trouble with the ashes. The corporation of 
Indianapolis spent $70,000 in investigation of that; and they 
reached certain conclusions: 1, that the coal must "be pulver¬ 
ized very finely; 2, that they could only use the ii^est grades 




















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84 


of coal; and 3, the cost exceeded the advantage gained. 

Mr. BUSH: The slag coming from this stuff must he con- 
sidered. 

Mr. STOTT: The Hew York Edison Company fitted up a 600 
h.p. furnace to use pulverized fuel, and they had no difficulty 
in getting high temperatures; hut they could not keep a hoiler 
or a furnace under it. 

Prof. C-03S: We tried it and y;e found we had trouble -- 
it would not digest nuts and holts and things of that kind 
that were in it. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: In St. Louis they found they got a 
fearful heat, hut the slack would not let them heat the water. 

The CHAIRMAN: Do you approve of this idea of construct¬ 
ing a special long combustion chamber furnace? 

Mr. MAHON: The point I would try to state is that it 
seems to me that while this apparatus is an admirable one for 
the study of the gases and the study of heat produced from 
combustion, I question whether it would he the best for the 
study of the whole heat produced by the combustion of the coal. 

Mr. HAY: I think this is a well founded criticism, be¬ 
cause it would be hard to make that tunnel tight, and, second, 
you could not prevent radiation. 

Mr. MAHON: You are studying the combustion of the gases, 
and not the whole heat produced by the combustion of the coal. 

Prof. BHECKEiHlIDGE: We expect to absorb as much as pos¬ 
sible by a boiler at the end of the tunnel. We expect to gen- 




85 


erate all the heat we can and continue it, as we do the 
process of combustion, believing that the gases are then ready 
to be turned into an absorbing surface like a boiler. We 
would have to make seme deduction for radiation losses ;but 
we will be able to find out the length of time and the length 
of furnace required to get complete combustion with the diff¬ 
erent kinds of coal; and if we did not account for all the 
heat balance, that other would be valuable. 

Mr. STOTT: We feel that here is a way in getting at 
something we do not know any other way of getting at. We 
may spend the year and then find that after spending a lot of 
time and money that we haven’t gained much. 

The CHAIIvMAi\ T : Farraday said he learned more from his 
failures than his successes. 

Mr. STOTT: Could the experiment be carried on with mix¬ 
ers first? 

Prof. Goss: I think this is a great scheme. I do not 
think we need limit the experiments in regard to any of the 
dimensions of these furnaces. Maybe it would be well to make 
it a high furnace rather than a long one. 

Prof. JACOBUS: This is simply burning of the coal on 
the grate; and I want to second this motion. The main thing 
is to burn the coal on the grate properly. If that is done 

the boiler will do the rest. 

Prof. GOSS: If it has the heating surface. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Yes, sir. 

















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86 


The CHAIRMAN: Any further remarks on this 
the long furnace? Will you discuss any of the 
experimenting with this long chamber furnace? 
mendation embraces five different things. 


question of 
features for 
This recom- 


Prof. BKhCiCEH^RIDGE: ¥e put in "100 tests" there; but 
we may make 300 tests. I do not want to build a furnace for 
ten tests, but I think when we make 100 we will be ready to 
stop. What is your idea there, Hr. Ray? 

Mr. RAY: You will find we are not safe in drawing de¬ 
ductions on less than 200 tests; and as they shall be three 
or four or five hours in length it seems that they should not 
be under 100 in number. 

Mr. BUSH: You can secure that by saying, "A sufficient 
number of tests shall be made by this furnace", etc. 

Prof. BRBCKEilRIBGE: It is our intention to have a steady 
burning of fuel. 

Prof. GOSS: Leave out the "five hours duration" and let 
experience determine the length of the tests. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: Yes; that is right. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Prof. Breckenridge was speaking of get¬ 
ting the steam. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: How about methods of mixing gases 

under "f", to be added there after "e"? 

Prof. JACOBUS: Why not try steam under the grate too? 

Prof. BRECKEiTRIDGE: "Methods of mixing the gases with 


the understanding that it can oe done from above or below." 


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87 


The very rapid combustion which takes place with the highly 
volatile coals might he delayed. 

Prof. WHITE: The most modern coking plants use it. 

Prof. BBECiCEHRIPGE: "Dilution of air supply with waste 
gases"; that night do. 

The CHAIRMAN: Are you ready to consider whether you 
will approve this recommendation? 

Dr. HOLMES: That is the last of the tests. The ques¬ 
tion is, are we going to get the highest efficiencies out of 
the different coals we use? Having a limited number or var¬ 
iety of conditions in our test work, it may he we have done 
injustice to certain coals hy this uniformity. Now in the 
future when we say we have tested a coal from a certain field, 
have we a sufficiently wide average? 

Prof. BRECHEHHIDGE: I thoroughly agree with you. We 
have indicated with the one furnace we have used one element 
of efficiency. We should he able to say later on that a cer¬ 
tain variety of coal can he utilized in a certain manner to 
obtain the best conditions. Recommendations 2 and 3 will 
place us in position to solve that question every time. 

Prof. GOSS: In testing a locomotive fuel, we feel we 
haven't fully defined the fuel unless the tests have been made 
under different conditions and the test has given a char¬ 
acteristic curve or line. Some may be giving a diflerent 
rate of combustion on account of their friable condition and 












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88 


the loss of sparks resulting therefrom. This new draft will 
show us the "best curve. We would simply keep on increasing 
the capacity of the boiler until we got a decreasing efficien¬ 
cy. 

Dr. HOLMES: There are three or four engineers of rail¬ 
roads who are anxious to have other tests made on the loco¬ 
motive boiler checked on a stationary "boiler. 

Prof. BRECKEHRIDGE: That is taken up on the next page 
of my memorandum. 

Mr. BUSH: I move we adopt recommendation Ho. 4 as amend- 

ed. 

Prof. GOSS: I second the motion. 

The CHAIRMAN: It has "been moved and seconded that Recom¬ 
mendation Ho. 4 he approved. Are there any remarks on the 
motion? 

Mr. STOTT: Question? 

The CHAIRMAN: It has been moved and seconded that Recom¬ 
mendation Ho. 4 he approved. All in favor say Aye; contrary- 
minded Ho; it is carried and so ordered. 

(Chairman continuing) Recommendation Ho.5 is "To arrange 
for conducting certain fuel tests at the plants or private 
firms or at experiment stations having approved facilities for 
carrying on the desired tests. Work of this kind should he 
definite as to purpose and should he conducted in a manner ap¬ 
proved by the Survey. 

That throws open the question of wider testing than the 










































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89 


appliances already provided for can take care of. I fancy 
that would bring in locomotive testing plants. 

Dr. HOLLIES: In ofcder to secure uniform results and to 
make use of all equipment in tiiis country, we supply all the 
materials, and lay down the conditions under which the tests 
are to be made, and send one of our men to be there when the 
tests are oeing made to see that the same methods are followed 
as at our central plant. 

Mr. STOTT: I do not think I can concur in this recom¬ 
mendation, Mr. Chairman, as I think the chief value of most 
of the laboratory tests shown to us by Prof. Breckenridge are 
the same things that have beeh made under the same conditions. 
We turn over part of this work, and no matter how carefully it 
might be done it will not be the same. I think it should be 
done under the same oversight that we have at our plant. 

Mr. QUBREAU: This would be of educational value to out¬ 
side firms possibly; while the results would be subject to 
the criticism just made, the educational feature would be of 
value. Whether this survey is to consider matters in that 
light or not, I don’t know. 

Dr. HOLMES: We should consider that rater as subordinate. 

Mr. BUSH: I do not know about having these tests made 
by the outside people, generally; but taking a large public 
plant like the one supplying St. Louis with water, and it seems 
to me that a test conducted by such expert would give us in¬ 
formation we could not obtain in our own plant. 



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90 


Dr. HOLMES: Suppose we took yourselT and. Prof. Breck- 
er.ridge would say to one of his men: You go there and co¬ 
operate with Mr. Bush; then the test would be made under 
conditions that would give commercial value. 

Mr. BUSH: I agree that these tests would not be as good 
as ours, but I am thinking of the testing of briquettes, and 
.experiments of this kind would simply give us added infor¬ 
mation beyond what the plants would be able to furnish in 
certain special lines. 

Hr. STOTT: I thought you meant to carry on part of the 
work in that way. 

Mr. BUSH: Ho, sir; it was to cover entirely different 
ground. Would it not be of some value to know what we are 
getting in the way of commercial tests? The Spring Valley 
Water Works in San Francisco studied the fuel values closer 
than any other large steam users, or than any other persons 
in this country, I guess, and they have worked out the dif¬ 
ferent values of the coal out in their country pretty close. 

Prof. BHECKENHIDGE: Do they know how to burn it to get 
the best results? 

Prof. WHITE: I should think they would turn to burning 
oil out in that country. 

Dr. HOLMES: Most of these points perhaps would come 
under No. 6 rather than Ho. 5, under Expert Field Work. 

Prof. BKECKEHRIDGE: I had thought of arranging with 
an experimental station at the University oi Illinois. They 









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91 


will make certain fuel tests in the University of Illinois of 
Illinois coals. The results could be added to the reports of 
our Survey. That would come in under "c" of iTo. 5. Under¬ 
stand that 5 goes on to 7, and that Ho. 7 is called 6. 

hr. STOTT: Would it not be well to say in what connec¬ 
tion certain fuel tests which cannot be conducted at the fuel 
testing plant”? 

Prof. GOSS: Or "tests for which the equipment of our 
station is not suitable"? 

Mr. GIBBS: Do your people have anything to do with the 
mining of the coal that is submitted for test? 

Ur. HOLMES: Yes, sir. We send two men into the mine 
to get the samples and then follow the coal right up. They 
are sent in to get samples from ten different places in a 
mine; and each of the samples is analysed separately; and 
then they look after the mining of a carload for shipment. 

Prof. GOSS: My understanding is that the privileges 
of this paragraph will only be indulged in cases where our 
station has not suitable equipment for conducting them. 

Prof. BRLCKE1UIIUGE: Shall we add to the first paragraph 
under "5", "Arrange for conducting certain fuel tests at the 
plants of private firms, or experiment stations having facil¬ 
ities for carrying on tests, not possessed by the central 
plant.” 

The CHAIRMAN: Anything further? 

Mr. BARRUS:. What is the word "possible" there mean? 



• 1 


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92 


Prof. BRECICEHRIDOE: It is a question whether you can 
arrange•with municipalities. Probably it would be better to 
change it to "practicable”. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any remarks upon '’A"? If not, we will 
pass to "b n . "A study of the smoke problem with municipali¬ 
ties or corporations designed to co-operate with the Survey". 
It occurs to me it would be a satisfactory thing to take 
that up with the municipalities and big corporations. 

Dr. HOLMES: The section now under consideration is to 
take a place like Chicago; they pick one of our best men and 
pay his salary, and their investigations are being made at 
their expense, and we make the same proposition to Cincinnati 
and Baltimore and Pittsburg, and other places. These men 
study every detail of the problem and if the system works 
properly it should be done with a number of cities in the same 
way. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Washington, and 
possibly Hew York could come under that. Each city pays the 
cost of the work of studying its problem. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further remarks on the desirability 
of the study of the smoke problem? If not, then let us pass 
to the next, to "c". "Making of actual tests on some special 
appliances or fuels which could not properly be made with 
1 acidities at the central plant". 

Any remarks on this? 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: I had in mind the powdered fuel 
proposition. 











































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93 


Prof. GOSS: Mr. Chairman, I think we can afford to let 
the question of pulverized fuel rest for the present. I 
think something might, however, he done on the line of gather¬ 
ing such information as is already available on that point 
for public information. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further remarks on "c"? If not, 

we will pass to "g“: "Tests of special fuels on locomotives 
in service". 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: I had an idea of covering the 
briquette tests for railroads and things of that kind under 
that section. 

The CHAIRMAN: Then let us say "On locomotives" and not 

v r fcj 

limit it to "locomotives in service". 

Prof. GOSS: I think efficiency tests should be attempted 
on locomotives on the road. 

The CHAIRMAN: Can you suggest anything else that should 
come under this head? 

Prof. WHITE: Is it contemplated to make tests on coke? 

Prof. BKSCKENRIPGE: Yes, sir. There is a Division 
* for that. 

The CHAIRMAN: Have you any remarks, Prof. Munroe? 

Prof. MUNROE: I see this legislation making alcohol 
tax-free in the arts was brought about by men who thought 
it was going to benefit the country. One engineer said he 
thought in passing that act Congress had done more for the 
country than if it had cancelled the National debt. 


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94 


Now, in legislating in that way they affect the wood 
alcohol industry. It is an industry now having an annual 
value of $5 ,000,000 of product; and if alcohol can he used 
as a fuel efficiently, to denaturize that alcohol, wood al¬ 
cohol would he employed to a large extent to do that. But 
if through negligence the alcohol is not fit for the uses 
proposed the result may he the destruction of the alcohol in¬ 
dustry. 

lust at this time it is important to get the real val¬ 
ue of alcohol as a fuel. Of course there lias been work done 

At the hearing before the Ways and Means Committee obtained by 

% 

Elihu Thomson, and recently in publications, these results 
have been summed up; and it appears as compared with gasoline 
that alcohol is 20 percent less efficient; but bearing in 
mind that it can undergo compression without auto-lignition, 
it may be that such engines can be devised as will increase 
its efficiency to 20 percent above that of gasoline. 

I have tried to find out what was being used in the tests 
made. Alcohol is a variable substance. It may have been 
95^ alcohol, the alcohol of the pharmocopeia. Byt in the 
denatured alcohol, when we take the unpurified spirits and 
denature it with wood alcohol, the results may be very diff¬ 
erent from what are obtained from the pure 95 fo alcohol. It 
seems to me a great deal of work needs to be done on this 
point before we can reach any definite conclusion. I note 
that some of that work was to be done for the Department of 








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95 


Agriculture. It may be that the field is already entirely 
pre-empted; but if not some governmental agency should take 
the subject up. 

The CHAIRMAN: That comes up later in our proceedings. 

Dr. HOLMES: We have been asked to consider whether . 
we should make tests between coal and petroleum. That is 
an important question on the Pacific Coast, as well as in the 
Texas field. 

Mr. BUSH: That is true in regard to the oil that cannot 
be refined. Of course, the oils with a heavy asphalt base 
have no value except for fuel. 

The CHAIRMAN: Would you suggest putting in an additional 
clause under *5"? 

Prof. BEBCKENRIDGE: Let that come under field work, 

under M c". 

The CHAIRMAN: "c" is "Making special tests on some spec¬ 
ial appliances or fuels" - doesn’t that cover the possibility 
of fuel oil? 

Dr. HOLMES: Admiral, did those tests made in the Navy 
include oils from the new field? 

Admiral RAE: I think additional tests would be of 

interest. They included some of the oil from Texas. 

Prof. WHITE: The Kansas and Oklahoma oil fields are of 

a later date than the tests. 

Admiral RAE: There are other oil regions since dis¬ 


covered. 

























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96 


Pro! . GrOSC: It seems to me the problem is that of burn¬ 
ing it or 'atomizing it. 

Mr. BUSH: One year ago they were putting out 200,000 
barrels a day in Texas; and the output is now reduced to 
60,000 barrels daily. That is being taken off the market 
for fuel. A great many people down there were burning oil, 
but now they have gone back to coal, the oil brings a higher 
price. 

Prof. WHITE: But the mid-continent field is coming up. 

Prof. MUHBOE: I did not come prepared here, but I am 
just completing the petroleum bulletin for 1904. I cannot 
carry the statistics in my head, but I have attempted to ac¬ 
count for the difference between the crude petroleum produced 
in 1904 and the refined accounted for and that which is im¬ 
ported; and the difference between these and the crude is fif¬ 
teen times what it was in the census of 1900, showing a large 
proportion of crude petroleum for fuel. The geological 

Survey corrected these statistics for the crude petroleum and 
we make the comparison between that which is refined and that 
exported, and the crude, and I was amazed at the difference 
between the 1904 report and the census of 1899. 

Mr. BUSH: During 1904 and 1905, that 

displaced 15,0G0,000 tons of coal with oil. 

Dr. HOLMES: Under "5”, "Making tests on some special 
appliances or special fuels", that would leave it possible 
to make petroleum tests for scientific interests if it were 





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97 


deemed desirable. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further suggestion as to what it 
would be desirable to include under recommendation No. 5? 

Prof* BRECKENRIDGE: Under ’’Tests of special fuels on 
Locomotives" -- X understand that things could be added; but 
the main point is that expert field work is approved of. 

The CHAIRMAN: The question is before you on approving 
Section 5 as modified. 

Prof. GOSS: I make the motion that it be approved as 
modified. 

Mr. STOTT: I second the motion. 

The CHAIRMAN: All in favor say Aye; contrary-minded 
No. It is carried and so ordered. 

Then the next is No. 6, new No. 6, "To devise and have 
constructed specially accurate apparatus for determining 
hydro-carbon losses. This is an important problem and may 
be a large one. Its solution would have application not only 
in boiler furnaces, but in the gas producer and gas engine, 
and all metallurgical furnaces. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDGE: I have added down below "Also de¬ 
vise such other appliances and instruments of precision as may 
be required". I think that should precede some of the others. 

Prof. GOSS: I move we adopt the recommendation. 

Mr. BUSH: I second the motion. 

Prof. LORD: I would be glad to take hold of the problem. 
In our laboratory we have designed most of our working appara- 

















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98 


tus. I think the problem is an important one. As I under- 
stand, it is to devise apparatus for completing the gas analy¬ 
sis over and above the ordinary methods, and especially to 
do it in such a way as to make it of application by the 
mechanical engineer who is competent to test it. 

Many of these things can be made promptly. I think 
this can readily be done. The main difficulty is that in 
handling such a question as that I would like to have the 
assistance of Dr. Dudley and Prof. Munroe, as the residual 
gases consist of nitrogen and hydrogen methyl and other gases 
largely hydro-carbons that are definitely combustible. 

Dow, I have made the attempt to determine those by pass¬ 
ing the gases over red-hot oxide of copper in tubes. That 
can be done, but the process is time-consuming, and can hardly 
be done in immediate connection with a boiler test. The re¬ 
sults we have obtained indicate that the volume of these gases 
would be very small. The presence of a very small fraction 
of a percentage of hydrogen or methane will profoundly affect 
the heat carried off. The weight of the gases in the chimney 
stack are from 16 to 20 times the weight of the fuel, and . 
one-tenth of one percent of a gas like methane would make that 
a different problem. 

Prof. BHBCKE1THIDGE: We do not understand that our 
Department was going to work to get up this apparatus; but 
we wanted to point out the necessity for it and get all the 
assistance and suggestions we could. 






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99 


Prof. MUKROE: Are there not present a certain amount 
of ash with certain pellicles of , and that you separ¬ 

ate these and send them out with your solids. There must be 
some method devised by which you get the heavier tar bodies. 

Mr. RAY: Wash out the lighter ones and pass the others 
on for later examination.’ Some years ago I made an analysis 
of a number of samples of dust collected in the flues of a 
stack and found they were high in ash, but contained a large 
amount of combustibles. I took the soot and made a number of 
tests of that kind, and found a considerable amount of sub¬ 
stance in a solid condition. But the refuse at the grate 
does not represent the total refuse of the fuel. 

Those are all problems which the Chemical Department 
is trying to work out. Our problem is to furnish data for 
them to work upon. Hasn't something been done in that De¬ 
partment by the use of blast furnace gases? 

Dr. HOLMES: I would like to hear a word or two on the 
subject of getting these temperatures. 

Prof. JACOBUS: It is difficult to get the temperature 
of the combustion chamber space above a fire. 1 once made an 
experiment of taking a platinum wire and getting its resist¬ 
ance, and taking the piece of wire I wound it around as a 
helix, and the more I worked with it the more certain I be¬ 
came of the uncertainty of any correct result being obtained 
with it. I should say that the only way was to put some sort 
of end there that will make the heat radiate in all directions. 













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100 


I used the hare ends of the wires radiating in all directions. 
It makes an enormous difference by putting a sheath around 
those ends, hut that throws a doubt on the accuracy of' meas¬ 
uring temperature. 

Dr. HOLMES: We had the same temperature problem in a 
gas producer, and we would like to get those temperatures as 
accurately as possible, or rather, as accurately as it is 
probable we could get them. I think, it may be the only way 
is to keep on comparing them. 

Prof.LACOBUS: I have tried to get an even temperature; 
but when you have some cold surface which will affect your 
result by a minus radiation, you will get all sorts of re¬ 
sults , accordint to your two pyrometers. 

Prof .BRECICEMRIDGE: We have found the Wanner pyrometer 
satisfactory in that ir recovered very quickly. We read 
2500, 2600, 2700 and 2800 degress -- I do not know whether 
they represent actual temperatures, but it may be that it is 
within 200 degrees of the actual temperature. The Wanner 
pyrometer comes with the certificate of the Reichenstadt of 
Berlin, and they furnished us with lamps that go with it,and 
methods for calibrating the instruments; and while I agree 
with Prof. Jacobus that we do not know the temperatures in 
there, the actual temperatures, still I know from the varia¬ 
tions that are going on in there, from the variations which 
it records, at different points of the chamber. 





































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101 


It may be interesting to say that the Department cf Phys¬ 
ics now has in its laboratory six -- three different types of 
optical pyrometers with three different electrical resistances; 
and it has purchased an electrical furnace in order to test 
and determine some solution of that problem as to the temper¬ 
atures. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Another feature that comes in in measur¬ 
ing temperatures in the boiler, if you are in the boiler you 
can just get direct radiation, if you are testing in the boil¬ 
er. But the difference is there at the different points. 

Prof. COSS: You are measuring an indefinite thing; you 
are not measuring a constant thing. 

The CHAIRMAN: What is your desire in relation to Section 

6 ? 

Prof. GOSS: I move that it be adopted. 

Mr. STOTT: I second the. motion. 

The CHAIRMAN: All in favor of the motion please say Aye; 
contrary-mindedj No. It is carried and so ordered. 

(Chairman continuing) That finishes the recommendations 
we are to consider. 

Shall we go ahead with the questions submitted without 
recommendation? What abvut Professional Paper No. 28. 

Prof. BRECKENRIDC-E: This relates, this paper Professional 
Paper No. 48, to the 78 boiler trials. If we report at 
equal length on the 400, how are we to report on these? How 
should we report cn these various things ? inese 400 tests 























































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102 


have got to he published; hut we must get down to the question 
of whether we will publish the entire tests for professional 
distribution and then a smaller digest of them, or what shall 
we do? 

Prof. 00SS: As far as observed data is concerned, the 
Survey can well afford to stand upon its duty and refrain from 
publishing the observed data. In the old days the experimenter 
felt compelled to publish his data in order to have some tiling 
behind his assertions. It seems to me that is no longer 
necessary, and it would be well to confine the published facts 
to the conclusions, or to a summarized statement of the re¬ 
sults. So far as comparisons and deductions from the observed 
data are concerned, I should like to reduce them. 

On the question of publication, I think there is lack¬ 
ing something which is very important. Publications which 
are likely to be issued covering this work must be scientific 
in character; they will interest the student, the engineer, 
and others. They will not appeal to the ordinary consumer of 
coal, and as he is the man we are to reach, so we should devise 
some system of contact between the Survey and the public gen¬ 
erally by the publication of brief bulletins dealing with re¬ 
sults in language which is void oi technicalities and plain to 
the ordinary reader. In order that we may accomplish some¬ 
thing of that sort, some system of publication more elaborate 
than we now have should be adopted. This proposition is to 
have a system of short bulletins, each confined to a single 




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103 


subject, and have some system of distribution which will carry 
them to interested parties. 

The CHAIRMAN: There is a similar method for farmers 

which is used in the Agricultural Department. For instance, 
all information on the question of weeds has been compiled and 
put into one bulletin which is distributed among the farmers. 

Prof. GOSS: The experimental publication station in 

/ 

Indiana distributes literature to the farmers of the State of 
Indiana; and any interesting facts are made promptly avail¬ 
able to him. It is a pretty large proposition to reach the 
consumers of coal, but there is another idea. We are looking 
forward to tests and researches. We would do as good a work, 
it seems to me, if we made available the information already 
published. This question of oil, and whether we should make 
tests of that, leads me to say that a great deal has been done 
in that line, and if in our process of publication we can 
embrace a summary of work of that sort and place it at the 
disposal of the reading public, not only what we find out, 
but what has been found out by other people, we would then 
spend well the whole of the money appropriated by Congress. 

The CHAIRMAN: On the question of pulverized fuel, that 
is a good subject to collect the information that can be had 
on it and distribute it. 

Prof. FERNALD: I had one of my seniors look up that 
matter, and we have a large number of letters in regard to 
difficulties and successes, and so on> I suppose by simply 


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104 


writing to them, some of them might he used by us. 

hr. HOLMES: We are going to get a good deal of material 

in that way, and we are trying to find a suitable man to sift 
this natter and prepare it for the press. Prof. Goss has 
a suggestion as to that. 

Mr. GIBBS: Those volumes that were published cover the 
coal mined all over the country. I do not know whether 
there is one user of coal that cared for all the information. 

If the subject of a pamphlet was confined, say to the 
Pennsylvania field, and another pamphlet/ to the Ohio field and 
so on, it would lessen the cost of publication and more inter¬ 
est would be tahen in them, for very few of us would have any 
room for the remaining account of tests of fuels from all poss¬ 
ible sources of supply. I cannot imagine while I am located in 

9 

Pennsylvania, that the results of Seattle coal, or British 
Columbia coal should have more than an academic interest to me. 

Prof. BKSCKEITRILGE: It would cut down the transport¬ 
ation immense] y. That is a suggestion in the interests of 
economy. 

Mr. GIBBS: The thing principally of interest to me 
there was the gas engine; and the thing that interests me as 
a purchaser of Pennsylvania coal is of course the coals that 
I buy, information about them. Anything we can put into the 
hands of a man which will give him the information he wants, 
that is all right. But 99 men out of 100 are satisfied with 
the things that surround them, with information about them. 





















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105 


Dr. HOLMES: We could then send on the cover of each 
publication a list of the others, and any man who wanted 
others than those relating to the coal from his own State, he 
could write for them. Prof. Lord has notes of chemical tests; 
they could all he printed in one set. 

Prof. BRECKEITRIDGE: Would it not be possible to have 
the publication Committee appointed out of this to work up a 
scheme of this kind. Prof. Goss and others could arrange that 
for us. I feel this is wrong to publish to this extent (in¬ 
dicating Professional Paper No. 48). 

The CHAIRMAN: Is there any other suggestion? 

Prof. WHITE: I think Mr. Goss’s suggestion would be a 
great element of interest in these studies. 

Dr. HOLMES: There is another question, and that is the 
question as to the extent to which tables and diagrams should 
be included in these reports we publish. I would like to 
know from the mechanical engineers and others who are here 
whether they regard the publication of these diagrams as im¬ 
portant . 

Prof. PERNALD: To the busy man the diagram is what he 
looks for. 

Prof. JACOBUS: I think the curves are very useful. 

Dr. HOLMES: I have one report with fifty diagrams in 

it, and only 15 pages of text. 

Mr. BUSH: The diagram is the whole thing boiled down. 

Prof. GOSS: I move that this committee recommend that 

















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106 


in addition to the more scientific publications covering its 
wont> tiiat there be provided j;opular bulletins of publications 
of the more popular sort for general distribution. 

Dr. HOLIES : Would Prof. Goss consider as a substitute 
for his motion the following: The appointment of a Committee 

to consider the matter of publication. We could maize it an 
advisory committee of three on which Professor Goss could be. 

I therefore move, that the question of publication of reports 
be referred to the Executive Committee, with the request that 
they formulate a plan to be presented to Congress through the 
President at the next Session of Congress. 

Prof. GOSS: I accept the substitution. 

Hr. GIBBS: I second the motion. 

Prof. GOSS: Would it be possible for any of the funds of 
the present appropriation to be used in printing anything the 
Survey might wish to print, in case ve could get the infor¬ 
mation ready before Congress meets? 

Dr. KGLEES: We now have the right to print bulletins from 
ten pages up to say five hundred pages. 

The CHAIKEAD: The motion has been made and duly seconded. 
All in ib’vor please say n a.ye" contrary minded "no". It is 
carried and so ordered. 

The other questions to be answered are as follows:- 
Second -- Is the matter published in the"Preliminary Reports" 
relating to the steaming tests sufficient? 

Is there any discussion on this point? Ii net, the 





















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107 


question is, Should, a locomotive type of boiler be installed 
at the Central Plant? If so, what should be its type and 
capacity? 

Fourth: Should experiments be made with pulverized fuel 

this year? That has already been decided in the negative. 

Fifth: What should be the length of the tests, when 

hand-fired and what when stoker fired. 

Prof. BRSCKEHRIPGE: The Department still maintains hand¬ 
firing tests should be of ten hours duration. Is there any 
objection to this? 

Prof. G-0S3: Is that the requirement of the Code? 

Prof. BRECICMTBIIXjE: Which, hand-firing or stoker? 

Prof. JACOBIJS: I do not believe in setting a limit, ex¬ 
cept to be a minimum limit. Ycu should make sure that you 
start in with your clean fire at the interval. If you have 
a bad coal and are cleaning every four hours at the end of the 
third interval you have had twelve hours, and if they do not 
agree with the others ycu keep on. You keep on and balance 
them all against the others to get the average. 

Prof. BRECKEIIRIDGE: That is what we have done, -- hand¬ 
firing not less than ten hours. We stop sometimes with nine 
hours and a half and others we continue until thirteen; but 
our object is to run ten. 

Prof. GOSS: Hitherto yours have been at a uniform rate of 
combustion? 

Prof. BHECKEHRIDGE: Yes, Sir: 



















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108 


Do you think stoker-firing tests should show a less amount 
of water evaporated than hand-firing? 

Prof. GOSS: I should hesitate to confirm that, although 
I think conditions permit it. Take a Honey stoker, if the 
supply is not constant you may get considerable variation; I 
think the conditions vary greatly. 

Mr. STOTT: My experience is that it is not safe to de¬ 
pend on less than ten hours. 

Prof. GOSS: That is under your rates of combustion. That 
is rather long for locomotives. 

Prof.BHECKEPHIDGE: I think the stoker trial should be 
longer. I have discussed this proposition with engineers in 
Illinois, and four out of every six said that a four hour 
test on a stoker was long enough. 

Prof. GOSS: That was on a chain grate? 

Prof. BKECXEiVRIDGE: You have a rate of feed of coal and 
a rate of evaporation, and you can establish your own condi¬ 
tions . 

Mr.STOTT: I have made the two percent variation my limit, 

and if I cannot reproduce within two percent, I would throw 
that out. 

Prof. BHECKEYRIDGE: Then is it the opinion of the Com¬ 
mittee not to think of anything except the ten-hour test? 

The CHAIRMAN: Yes, Sir. 

The next is: Should reports be submitted in 
any other system of units than the English? 


















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109 


Prof. BRECKEIIRIDGE: We have thought that our calcula¬ 
tions should he in the metric system. 

The CHAIH11AIT: That would properly come under the over¬ 
sight of the Executive Committee when considering the matter 
of publication. 

That finishes the program before us at this time. 


Dr. HOLMES: The Gas Producer Division was supposed to 
need about as much time as the Boiler Division in presenting 
its case. 

Prof. EERUALD: I think one-third of our work has been 
c vered already in the general discussion we have had, so we 
can shorten the time required a good deal. The work is of 
such a new character that I cannot classify it as the work 
of the Boiler Division has been formulated by Professor Breck- 
enridge. We cannot go into any such refinements as the 
Boiler Division has entered. 

Dr. HOLMES: Then the question of coke as a by-product is 
a subject which should not take more than one hour. 

Then the matter of publication we have disposed of. 

Briquetting can be disposed of in a few minutes. 

Then comes the question of what can be done looking toward 
the lessening of waste in mining and handling fuels. That 
is a question on which I have asked Professor White, Mr. Bush 
and Professor D'Invilliers to aid us. Those subjects will 

t 

conclude the business matters of the conference 




The CHAIRMAN: 


The question now is as to whether we should 


have an evening session. 

Prof. Wit I TP: Mr. Chairman, I move that when we adjourn 
we meet at eight-thirty this evening. 

Motion was seconded, stated and carried. 


EVENING SESSION --- AUGUST 10th, 1906. 

The CHAIRMAU called the meeting to order at 8:40 p.m. 


hr. HOUSES: In talcing up the subject of the Gas Producer 
shall we proceede as we did with the work of the Boiler Divi¬ 
sion? 

Mr. GIBBS: I should like to say that we have not had 
time to read this paper on this subject. 

Prof. EERUALD: I did not receive notice until Priday 
or Saturday night that I was expected to prepare and submit 
this statement on the gas producer. 

The CHAIRMAIT: Proceed, Professor Fernald. 

Prof. 3PERI7ALD: Our equipment consists of two pressure 
gas producers manufactured by B. D. Wood a Co., of Philadel¬ 
phia. Tlie producer is 17 inches inside diameter and fifteen 
feet in height. The reason for installing the other producer 
is that by our present arrangement no time is lost in chang¬ 
ing from one coal to another at the end of a test, as tne other 




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producer is Drought into action by the simple manipulation 
of a valve. 

In hay, following the closing of the Fair, we moved and 
installed it in the Grdunds. 

Tile original producer was the larger; the second was 
their ho. 8; it was eight inches in diameter and we lined it 
with fire-brick so as to make it seven inches. 

Prof. JACOBUS: What about the cost of those? 

Prof. PEKMALD: It is difficult to get figures. Professor 
Wood whom I wrote to about it said about $11,000 for the 250 
h.p. gas producer. They list it at §35.00 per h.p., which 
would make it a little more expensive than boilers at the pre¬ 
sent time. However, I see no reason for the price being kept 
up. 

The engine we installed was a three-cylinder vertical 
Westinghouse gas engine, with cylinder nineteen inches in di¬ 
ameter and 22-inch stroke, rated at 235 brake h.p. This en¬ 
gine was belted to a six-pole 175 Kilowatt Westinghouse di¬ 
rect current generator. The load on the generator was con¬ 
trolled by, and the energy developed dissipated through a 
water rheostat specially constructed for the purpose. In ad¬ 
dition to this there was a supply of apparatus, instruments, 
etc. for carrying on the tests, and a small, well-supplied chem¬ 
ical laboratory. 

In early spring of 1905 the capacity of the plant was 
doubled by the installation of a second producer, as I have sajd 





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112 


so that the plant now consists or two independent producers 
both discharging into the sane scrubber. These producers work 
independently, one being charged while the other is in opera¬ 
tion. 3y this arrangement no time is lost m changing from 
one coal to another at the end of a given test, as a simple 
manipulation of valves brings the second producer into opera- 
ation when the first one is cut out. ho?/, you can turn from 
one to the other without stopping the engine. 

The tar, from which we have been extracting, contained 
water and other material, so there has recently been added 
a crude but effective piece of apparatus for extracting the 
moisture from the tar. By means of this device the moisture 
in the tar is reduced to about ten percent, and samples have 
been secured in which the percentage of moisture was as low 
as three percent. So that we now get most of the moisture 
out of the tar. 

We are now installing an Alden Absorption Bynanometer 
of 300 h.p. capacity in order to make special brake tests. 

That comprises the general equipment of the plant. 

Prof. BKSCK31TRIDGE: What quantity of tar- 

Prof . FERBA1D: You will find the data relating to that 
subject on page eight of the statement. Those figures are the 
average for cur six months work, and they are good enough to 
stand as the average for the whole time. The tar, with the 
larger part of the water extracted, runs 150 lbs to the ton. 

The next step is the method of conducting the tests. 



• 1 




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113 


With the present method it is very difficult to determine the 

* 

amount of coal we "burn in the producer. We have been running 
two sixty-hour tests a week -- one starts at eight o'clock 
Monday morning and ends at eight o'clock Wednesday night. Out 
of the sixty hours we base our figures on the results of 48 or 
50 hours; that is, we run ten hours getting the producer bed 
into condition, working condition, so that we can hold regu¬ 
lar beds. The men who charge the producer do not put the 
record down. They are put down by a totally independent man. 
The object is to keep the fuel bed uniform as far as possible, 
and from time to time you can look in and study the thickness 
of your fuel bed and know they are about the same as at the 
beginning. That is one point we have been trying to effect, 
to keep the bed uniform. 

In 1904 the tests were begun on a basis of a total of 
fifty hours for each test; the plant was operated ten hours 
a day and then banked for the night, the records being contin¬ 
ued the next morning. This plan permitted of one test a week 
only. This was continued for two tests; and then in order to 
secure double the number of tests, we arranged a schedule so as 
to conduct two tests per week, each thirty hours in duration, 
and allowing sufficient time between tests to make tne neces¬ 
sary change of fuel and bring the fuel bed to the proper con¬ 
dition. 

To determine the amount of coal actually ourned in the 
producer in any given period, in renewing the work in ■‘•'lap , 1905, 














114 


we determined to make tiie test on each coal as long as consist¬ 
ent, and we adopted the schedule which I have mentioned, of 
having two tests per week, each of sixty hours duration. The 
first eight to twelve hours are needed to get the fuel led in 
proper form, and the official test, as reported, covers the 
la^t forty-eight to fifty hours. Readings are taken every 
twenty minutes during the tests, as also calorimetric deter¬ 
minations from the gas; "but in the majority of the cases the 
gas analyses were made hut once every two hours. In order to 
secure a high degree of accuracy a double check system was 
adopted. 

Owing to the lack of reliability in the operation of the 
gas engine many tests conducted during the Exposition were 
for a few hours only. But all tests now made cover sixty 
hours; and in order to establish beyond doubt the reliability 
of the gas producer and gas engine, one test was carried far 
beyond the regular sixty hour period. This test was run for 
562 hours consecutively on ordinary Illinois Coal from the 
mine of the Bonk Brothers Coal & Coke Company at Troy,Illinois. 

Mr. BARBUS: What is the producer rated at? 

Prof. PERUALB: 250 h.p. 

Mr. BARBUS: The fuel bed is what? 

Prof. PERUALB: Seven feet in diameter, thirty-five square 
feet of surface; and the original charge to get the fuel bed 
in shape is about three tons. We burn about three hundred 
pounds per hour. That I will take up later. 














■mM- ’ 





115 


At the last meeting I reported that this endurance test 
mentioned on page 3 of the statement was in progress and would 
he continued. We continued the test for 562 hours, and dur- 
ing that test producer and engine both operated very satis¬ 
factorily indeed. The only reason they stopped at the end of 
the 562 hours was that one of the connections of the scrubber 
was too long, and the gas was then fallen around two connections. 
During that period the average dry coal per hour,of an ordinary 
grade of Illinois coal, was 1.2 pounds per hour. That was about 
the same as we had from some other coal. That was per brake 
horse-power, and is on the assumption of 85 percent. 

Under ’’number of tests made" I have set out the samples 
from different states, First, the bituminous coals tested were 
104; then the lignites tested amounted to 15; and there were 
eight miscellaneous fuels; making a total of 127 tests. The 
miscellaneous fuels were; Arkansas Semi-Anthracite, Brasil, 
California Lignite and locomotive cinders from the front end 
of the locomotives, Coke Breese, etc. From the California 
Lignites and the locomotive cinders we got very good results 
by the combination. We tried the cinders alone but could not 
get satisfactory results. 

The Rhode Island Graphite we found very well, but not 
a good gas maker. 

REPOFTS PUBLISHED: 

Early in 1905 a preliminary report of the results of the 
producer tests made during the Fall of 1904 was puolished as 























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116 


a part of Bulletin Bo.261, issued by the United States Geologi¬ 
cal Survey, and it was followed by one of the big volumes, Bo. 
48, and then the preliminary reports of results obtained from 
May 1st, 1905, to December 31st, 1905; and also for six months 
of this year, from January 1st, to July 1st, have been submit¬ 
ted for publication. 


The results in the majority of tests have been exceed¬ 
ingly gratifying; official records have been made as low as 
0.95 pounds of dry coal per hour burned in the producer per 
electrical horse power developed at the switch board; or 0.80 
pounds of dry coal per hour burned in the producer per brake 
horse-power, on the basis of an assumed efficiency of 85 per¬ 
cent for generator and belt. Those are West Virginia coal. 

I think I spoke in March of the investigations in regard 
to sulphur. When we started the plant the rex:, re sent at ive of 
R. D. Wood.6c Co. objected to it; but as our coal came in with 
three, four and five percent of sulphur we found we had to use 
a purifier for talcing out the sulphur. Investigations by chem¬ 
ists showed that purifiers consisting of oxidized iron fill¬ 
ings and shavings were fairly efficient for coals containing 
little sulphur — one percent or less; but it was found that 
for coals containing a larger percent of sulphur the purifier 
was exhausted after operating about six or eight hours. 

Mixtures of lime and shavings were tried, but with little 
success. As a result of these investigations the purifier has 


been discarded and the gas, carrying its full percentage of 




117 


sulphur has been charged directly into the engine cylinders. 
This method of operating has been going on practically all the 
time since the installation of the plant and no ill effect has 
been discovered, although coal has been used which runs as high 
as S.L.percent sulphur. The cylinders show no ill effects 
whatever. 

One feature of our plant is the economizer, used for pre¬ 
heating the air for the blast. A series of experiments has 
shown no effect upon the chemical composition of the gas or 
upon the efficiency of the plant when air at ordinary atmos¬ 
pheric temperature was substituted for preheated air. The 
economizer has been discarded and the plant thus simplified. 

Dr. HOLIES: Professor Pernald, your engineer told me he 

/ 

ran an engine with a producer without talcing the tar off. 

Prof .EEFHTALL: That has been done. There is no reason 
why the gas with a full charge of tar in it should not be used, 
if we get the tar in the cylinder. The difficulty is in 
passing through the pipe line. 

We made a short run carrying the tar through there without 
serious trouble. Of course we had to clean up frequently, 
but we are convinced that if we can get away from closed pass¬ 
ages and get a governor that can take care of it we will be 
all right. 

Prof.WHITE: You get the benefit of the tar then as a heat 

producer. 

Prof .EEHITALL: We have not yet done enough of that to say 



lie 


i t was wise. It was continued f'Or three or four days. It is 
one of the things we hope to take up later. 

Then comes our general summary:-- These figures are 
worked up for the last six months. This summary amounts to 
very little probably from an accurate, scientific standpoint, 
but these figures answer certain questions we are frequently 
asked. 

The fuels have been divided into bituminous coal, lignite 
and peat. The results from peat are confined to the single 
test made on Florida peat. This has been necessary on account 
of the fact that the amount of Massachusetts peat furnished 
was not sufficiently large to allow the producer to be prop¬ 
erly charged with this fuel, and the under fuel-bed was then 
built up with Illinois coal, thus making it possible rto ob¬ 
tain exact figures for the results from the peat. We knew the 
gas from the peat was operating the engine, or helping to oper 
ate it; but we did not know where the gas from the peat and 
the gas from the under-bed of Illinois coal began and where 
they left off. 

You will notice that the average heat units per cubic 
foot from coal is about 154; and from lignites 155, and then 
from the Florida peat it was 174. 

These figures might be modified if we had a larger number 

of tests. 

Dr. HOLMES: That middle statement, British Thermal units 


per dry coal; does that refer also to dry lignite? 




















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119 


Prof. FERNALI): Yes, sir. ; 

Prof. JACOBUS: What calorimeter did you use? 

Prof. FERNALI): Inter-calorimeter. 

Prof. LORD: My impression is that was the higher value-- 
the inter-calorimeter. 

Prof. FERNALI): These calorimeter figures are taken every 
twenty minutes, and the analyses every two hours. 

Prof. JACOBUS: The lower value is taken by the calori¬ 
meter. The upper value is the constant value according to the 
Code, and that upper value is from three to three and one-half 
percent, unless you are careful about the saturation of the air. 

If you will notice, the average pounds of coal fired per 
square foot of fuel bed area is 7.6 lbs.— and for dry coal, 
only 7. Practically all the information I can get on those 
figures give from fifteen to twenty as the proper figures per 
square foot of fuel bed area. In all our tests we have run 
from seven to eight, and got our power out of it. I have not 
read any of the papers, but they say from fifteen to twenty 
pounds of coal per square foot of fuel bed area. 

The gases vary very much. On some coals it runs 900 to 
1000 Fahrenheit, and with others down to 400 Fahrenheit. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Is that gas luminous as it comes from 

the generator? 

Prof. PERUATJ): No. If the gas burns in there the C.O. 
is being destroyed and we do not get as good results. We have 
been getting our fuel bed cooler and are getting better opera- 



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120 


tione. The pressure was from seven to eight inches of water. 
Now, we run on pressures of l-l/2 to 2 inches of pressure. We 
are running less pressures with satisfactory results. The only 
time we have to increase the pressure is when we get something 
that clogs. 

Prof. WHITE: How do you get rid of the cinders and the 

clinkers? 

Prof. EER1LA1D: We have four poke holes on the top. The 
clinkers form as large as any man (?) and they had to stop to 
keep the clinker broken up. 

Mr. BUSH: How many employees would it take around a plant 
of 250 h.p.? 

Prof. EERNALD: I should say, under ordinary conditions 
it would require two men each shift, one at the engine and onc- 
at the producer. 

Mr. STOTT: With the larger producers would the same con¬ 
dition maintain? 

Prof. EERNALD: I do not know. The general statement 
given out is that it is about the same. 

I am now getting some figures on that from different 
plants. I started only ten days ago to visit different pro¬ 
ducer plants over the country and if Dr. Holmes wishes me to 

continue the visits, I will do so and give the public the 

% 

results. X am getting that information now, and I have a 
list of 118 plants operated under producer plants. Some are 
having all kinds of troubles; others claim to have none, 


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121 


Mr. BUSH: Does it require a "better class of man than the 
average fireman?-- the fireman of a stationary engine? 

Prof. FEKNALD: It requires a different type of man on a 
gas engine from the man used on the steam engine. One of the 
most unsatisfactory combinations is to put a steam engineer 
in charge of a gas engine; they don't want to run it and the;/ 
will kill the plant. I know one such case where they took on 
two or three steam engineers, and after they had ruined the 
plant they went out and got an entirely green man and instruct¬ 
ed him. 

The average total coal, as fired per electrical horse 
power developed, is 1.69. We get our steam from the boiler 
and get it in the coal figure and add it. We charge it against 
the plant whether we make gas from it, or whatever part of it 
has been used in the form of steam. 

Mr. GIBBS: Is there any difficulty in making a producer 
furnish its own steam? 

Prof. FERHALD: At the present time I do not think there 
is a pressure plant operating with a single producer that can 
develop its steam to run its own plant. The Loomis-Pettibone 
plant and the Westinghouse Company with their suction plant, 
are trying to generate their own steam. The steam that we use 
for the place there, with the coal required for it, is about 
ten percent of the coal burned in the producer. 

Mr. GIBBS: When you get too much can you arrange by 
shutting off the air-supply and leaving the steam on? 
















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122 


Prof. EER1TAID: Yes, sir. We had some trouble before we 
fix the holders so that the gases would mix. That is we no¬ 
ticed great variation in the gas before it reached the engine. 
We found the engine and the calorimetric determinations of the 
heat units were going something on this order (describing) 
where the maximum was 160 and the minimum 94; arid we decided 
there was a direct current of ^as from the generator to the 
engine, and was in the upper part of the Jipfder, So we had to 
run a pipe up there and take the gas out. Since then the gas 

i 

has run with more uniformity, and all the fluctuations in the 
fuel-bed temperatures, which would’show up in the calorimetric 
figure and in the engine, Would not now.show up, and the 
engine does not jump. 

Prof. BEBCKEMHIDOE: How much does that hold? 

Prof. EERHALD: 4080 feet. We run that on very light 
pressure. It fluctuates a little -- about an inch I think. 

We did not- use it on part of our long run. During that 5 62 
hour run we had to devise a scheme to take out the ashes. We 
had to get rid of our ashes; so every 48 hours we had to have 
one hour in which to give the men a chance to clean the ashes 
out. In those cases we had no difficulty in handling it as a 
sucticn plant for about an hour. 

Mr. GIB3S: How much pressure did you have? 

Prof. FERHALD: About an inch of water. 

Then the next is ratio of total coal per electrical horse 
power (under boilerj to total coal per electrical horse-powei 


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123 


in producer. 

Then the ratio of total lignite per electrical horse-power 
in producer. Then comes the total Florida peat per electrical 
horse-power under boiler to the total Florida peat per elec¬ 
trical horse-power in the producer. 

Then come the figures on tar and water mixtures. They 
are very rough. There is so much variation that you cannot 
tell whether the tar we extract today comes from the same 
source as the tar we are using today. We may take it from a 
different lot of coal. 

Prof. MUNKOE: You could not tell what particular lot of 
coal it "belonged to? 

Prof. FERNALD: No, sir. Nor can we correctly determine 
the ash, as it takes about three weeks. 

Prof. FER1TALD: On the bottom of page 7 is shown the fact 
that dry lignite is 11,505 as compared with 12,900 for the 
coal -- that is the British thermal units. Then taking the 
lignite we find it is 155 B.T.U. per foot of gas Now tak¬ 
ing the average pounds of coal as fired, per sq. ft. of fuel- 
bed area, and with coal it is 7.6 and with lignites 12.1. That 
seems to show you can get more out of the lignite. 

Prof. FERNALD: For dry, it is 7 for coal and 8.9 lbs. 
for lignite. Taking those figures you get more out of the lig¬ 
nite. The Germans burn dry lignite altogether. The total 
capacity of the producer will eat up more lignite per square 
foot of fuel bed area. 


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124 


Dr. HOLMES: The Germans claim they can mine, pulverize, 
dry and briquette their lignites at a cost of less than fifty 
cents per ton. The Germans have some special scheme for 

i , 

binding their lignites with a binder. 

Prof. MUNROE: You said there were 118 plants on your 

list? 

Prof. EERNALD: Yes, sir. 

Prof. MUNROE: A.re they all using 250 h.p. units? 

Prof. FERNALD: No, sir; all the way from 20 to 8,000. 
Prof. MUNROE: Do you know how many plants there are for 
heating purposes?--metallurgical and glass works etc. I am 
collecting the statistics relating to illuminating companies 
and I thought the same for heating purposes might be inter¬ 
esting. 

Prof. EERNALD: I have not listed mine yet; they run all 
the way from 20 h.p. to 8000 and 9000. This is just in the 
United States. 

Prof .MUNROE: Where is that 9000 h.p. plant? 

Prof. EERNALD: National Tool Company of Middletown. 

Mr. GIBBS: What class engine? 

Prof. EERNALD: Not specified. Out of this list of 118, 

seventy odd are suction plants. 

Prof. MUNROE: So their gas producing and tar producing 

capacities would differ? 

Prof. EERNALD: Yes, sir. Many of them are working with 


anthracite coal. 



125 


* 


Prof. MUITBOE: How much do you use in starting up? 

Prof. PERNALD: 5,000 pounds. 

Prof MUNKOE: Is that gas from the firing-up coal wasted 

It seems like a hig loss. 

Prof. PEPNaLD: That 5,000 for firing up would he no more 
if you ran the test for five weeks than it is for ten hours. 

So much for what has been done. 

* \ . 

Prof. 3KBCKENRIDGE : You spoke of the amount of coal 
burned per square foot of fuel bed area as being rathers small¬ 
er than reported. 

Prof. EEKKALD: I said wherever I had read anything in 
the different articles I have read in the electrical journals. 

The CHAIRMAN: Could it be possible that they have re¬ 
ported on grate area. A grate area of 4-l/2 would make about 
15. 

Prof. FEHNALD: That may be. But I do not think that is 
a proper element. 

Prof. WHITS: Do you crush the coal? 

Prof. EEHNALD: We did in one plant ana the coal ran from 
lumps the size of walnuts up. The last tests we ran them as 
the coal came in. 

The question of efficiencies in these figures in Pro¬ 
fessional Paper Ho.48 and some I have, indicate an uncertainty 
as to the relative efficiencies of the two. 

Now, whether the coal which gives an efficiency of 70 can 
be brought to 75 by different handling is a question. We 





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126 


have simply run coal after coal, and our efficiencies vary 
from 57 to 88 percent. 

Mow, the W.Va. coals show up test so far. Whether the 
other coals have received fair treatment or not,I do net know. 

Prof. BPJECKEMRIDGE: What do you mean by "efficiency" 
thereV 

Prof. FERHALD: It is the ratio of heat value in the gas 

t 

coal ready for the engine ^o the heat value of the dry coal 
actually charged into the producer. That is what we call the 

efficiency of conversion. We take the gas-coal and after we 

* 

have extracted the tar, it has run from 57 percent to 88 per¬ 
cent . 

Dr. HOLMES: This percentage would be larger if you had 
a uniform coal? 

Prof. FEHMALD: Yes, sir. Eut we find a tendency there 
to deposit some on the side and some in the center. 

The CHAIRMAN: Does the ash show a tendency to center? 
Prof. FERHALD: There may be a little. 

The CHAIRIIAH: About what amount of fuel per square foot 
of grate surface area is there? 

Prof. FEHHALD: We use about seven pounds. 

Prof. WHITE: Ho?/ do you determine the number of feet of 

gas used? 

Prof. FERHAED: We have a meter there and we check that 
with the holder capacity. There is enough gas in the holder 
to let it run ten minutes. It is a meter than runs 30,000 






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127 


cubic feet per test. 

Prof. MUILIOE: Is the production of gas uniform enough to 
connect-with an engine? 

Prof. EERYAID: Yes, sir; if we had one coal. But not if 
we had green men. The chemist hangs the last calorimetric 
determination of the heat value on the outside of the build¬ 
ing. That hangs there for the next twenty minutes, when 

the next value is displayed. That is a stimulus to the work¬ 
men; if he sees there has been a fall it holds him up to do 
better. It is not a question of whether the men are ignorant 
or otherwise, but it is that they are lazy. 

Ucw, some of the problems for future investigation:- 
Up to the present time the work of the Gas Producer Division 
of the Euel Testing Plant has of necessity been confined to 
the routine testing of coals, lignites and peats from the 
different fields. Eor the most part the work has been con¬ 
fined to a single test of each particular fuel supplied. 
Although these routine tests have shown clearly the possibil¬ 
ity of using these fuels for power purposes in the pressure 
producer plant, no opportunity has offered for investigating 
many of the most important problems connected with producer 
work. As soon as the few remaining coal fields have been 
included in the present work of the plant it seems desirable 
to devote a large amount of time to a series of tests upon 
each of a few representative coals, in order to determine - 
Eirst --The conditions under which different bituminous coals, 














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126 


lignites and peats may be used most efficiently in gas pro¬ 
ducers . 

That is one of the most important things for the next 
few months. That is to see what percentages of errors there 
are. Then modify one condition at a time as the same may de¬ 
velop. What those changes should be,and what factors should 

be cut out and what inserted in that series of tests, is some¬ 
thing for you to discover at length and give opinions on. 

Prof. GOSS: I think, Mr. Chairman, that the expert in 
charge of this work knows more about it than the members of 
the Committee, so the best thing the Committee can do is to ad¬ 
vise that "he be given rope". 

Prof. FERUALD: I would like to get all the information I 
can on the subject? 

We have done the routine work which we were asked to do. 

Prof. GOSS: Possibly it would be well to have Professor 
Pernald run a random line to ascertain such facts as he wants. 

Prof. BHECKEIIHIDGE: It is very evident, Mr. Chairman, 
that the literature on the subject of the gas producer has 
been very meager and misguiding; that is shown from the fact 
that it was thought by the manufacturers that not more than 
one percent of sulphur could be used, and other opinions like 
that. If there was any literature it certainly was most un¬ 
reliable. I think Professor Pernald should go ahead and make 
a scientific investigation of the gas producer; and he will 
get at these problems of determinations of the temperatures 




I 







129 


at all points, and. the ratios and quantities and rates and 
•variations, and all those things. That is what he rather ex¬ 
pects to do, and it seems to me it is the thing we should ad¬ 
vise him to do. 

% 

We have run 127 tests with this plant, and it seems to 
me advisable that a series of tests should be made with the 
present equipment. 

The CHAIRMAN": How would it do for someone to make a mo¬ 
tion on this point? 

Prof. PERiTALD: Let me read through the different items 
we have here, Mr, Chairman, before we take them up and act on 
them individually. 

Second -- The separation of the tar and other by-products 
from the gases made in the producer and the commercial recov¬ 
ery of these by-products; the use in the engine of the gas 
direct from the generator with its full charge of tar; or the 
fixing of the tar and other hydro-carbons as available gases 
in the pro-ducer gas for power purposes. 

Third: The use of slack coals in the gas producer, and 

the value of the sizing of lump coals for producer purposes. 

Fourth: Possible improvements in the producer equipment, 
which would increase the efficiency of various coals used. 

Fifth: The use of sage-brush, wood, etc. in the gas pro¬ 
ducer . 

Many of the points suggested, in 2, 3, 4 and 5 will ne¬ 
cessitate the installation of one or more producers which op- 










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130 


erate on a different oasis from those now in use at the plant. 

Dr. HOLMES: Then there is the by-product producer; they 
claim that now saves one-third of the ammonia as compared with 
one-sixth by the present style. 

Prof. PEHl'IALP: Then the sixth is, the utilization of 
blast furnace gases and gases from coke ovens for power pur¬ 
poses . 

A few of the companies from whom we had letters, being 
manufacturers of suction producer plants only, feel we are 
mistaken in not putting in their suction machines; but as the 
fuel is confined to charcoal and coke we did not think that 
way. ^There is a shoe factory in Omaha that throws in scraps 
of sole leather and makes gas with them. There is one com¬ 
pany with a suction plant which they claim will work on bitum¬ 
inous coal. That is what they are working on, but I have 
never been able to get any information about it; and I am go¬ 
ing to the company's plant before long and try to get in. So 
we come down to bituminous coal, and this presents us to the 
pressure, or induced draft, the down-draft plant. 

That is the second question. The next is whether we 
shall use the gas directly. We can take that up under "addi¬ 
tional equipment". 

Prof. WHITE: Have you seen those blast-furnace gas 
users? They take the flame as it burns off the bee-hive oven. 

Mr. BUSH: The matter of extracting tar from this gas, 
Professor, do you consider that the gas with the tar in it had 


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131 


greater efficiency than with the tar out? What we want in the 

l 

producer engine is the greatest energy. I think that is one 
thing that has retarded the introduction of by-product coke 
ovens into this country. 

Prof. MtMROE: In 1904 there were about 37,000,000 tons 

T * 1 

of coke cooked in by-product ovens, and of the tar recovered 
there was about 28 percent burned, •* The most important way 
to make it useful would be to burn it in some way. 

Prof. EER1IALD: The thing which interests us is to fix 
that tar as a gas without super-heating it; that is a thing 
to be considered. 

Prof. WHITE: What is the temperature of the escaping 
gases from that engine? 

Prof. EERITALD: The exhaust temperatures are from 1000 to 
1800 E. 

Prof. WHITE: Could you not maintain the heat in your 
gases by utilizing the heat in the exhaust gases to accomplish 
that thing? 

Prof. BERHAIiD: The Commercial Utilities Company of Hew 
York City are at that. 

Mr. BARRUS: There was a suction producer using anthracite 
coal-- a 100 h.p. producer attached to a 100 h.p. gas engine. 
The system here consists in withdrawing the waste—gases from 
the exhaust and feeding that gas back into the ash-pit of the 
producer instead of using some. I made a test on a plant 
running both ways, and found there was quite a difference in 




















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132 


the economy. Another thing connected with the system is this: 
When using the exhaust gases you change the engine to get more 
compression. We had a compression of 120 lbs; and we had 200 
in using the new system, and in that way the engine developed 
more power through gas production. 

The induction of the waste gases had this effect, that 
it changed the quality of the gas delivered by the producer so 
that it was almost entirely carbonic-oxide. The ordinary com¬ 
position of the gas with steam was used, it was nearly equal 
parts of CO and hydrogen; and when the waste gases were used 
the combustible element was C.O., and in using that they had 
high compression and got more work out of the gas. 

Prof. GOSS: Mr. President, I think we are all agreed that 
Specification 1 should be carried out; and I make a motion 
that it have our approval. 

The CHAIRMAN’: Professor Goss’ idea is that it meets with 
the approval of the Committee that Professor Pernald run a 
random line of tests such as he has indicated. 

(Motion is seconded) 

The CHAIRMAN: All in favor say "aye”; contrary "no". It 
is carried and so ordered. 

Prof. GOSS: With reference to Point 2, I suggest that 
it shall begin after the semi-colon; so that ho.2 will read: 

The use in the engine of the gas direct from the generator 
with its full charge of tar; or the fixing of the tar and oth¬ 
er hydro-carbons as available gases in the producer gas for 













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133 


pov/er purposes. I move that we approve that section as read. 

Mr. BUSH: I second the motion of Professor Goss. 

The CILAIRMA1T: Any remarks on the motion, gentlemen? All 
in favor say "Aye”; contrary minded "No". It is carried and so 
ordered. 

The next is Section 3. 

Prof. PERNALD. The type of producer mentioned is the 
Pettihone. With it it is claimed we can use the slack coals. 

Prof. GOSS: It seems to me that Paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 
refer to desirable work; hut whether it is expedient in view 
of the present state of the art of testing, is something which 
should he left to the ones in charge of the work. 

The CHAIRMAN: Is it the sense of the Committee that 
sections 3, 4 and 5 had better wait for a time? 

Prof. GOSS: I was going to suggest that we approve of 

them as proper subjects Per examination and investigation,but 

# 

that they are regarded as secondary to the matters we have 
already here. 

Mr. BUSH: Seconded. 

The CHAIRMAN: All jn favor say "Aye"; contrary minded 
"Ho". It is carried and so ordered. 

Bo you want to take up the item of an additional produc¬ 
er as a separate item, or is that covered in what is done? 

Dr. HOLMES: After "producer" insert "producer and engine". 

The CHAIRMAN: Now, this brings us to section 6 - The 
utilization of blast furnace gases from coke ovens for power 




134 


purposes. Any remarks on that feature? 

Mr. BUSH: There was a paper read at the Western Society 
of Engineers that impressed me very favorably, with the possi¬ 
bilities of using these gases. 

Dr. HOLMES: The amount of amm onia, made from the nitro¬ 
gen in coke would be worth more than anything else; with it 
bringing $62.00 a ton now. 

Mr. BUSH: I think this should go into the same class as 
sections 3, 4 and 5. Is that the sense of the meeting? 

Prof. GOSS: I second that. 

The CHAIRMAH: Unless there is objection it is so ordered. 

The next is 7 -- The relative fuel values of alcohol, 
gasoline, gas, etc. 

Prof. FER2TALD: At the request of Dr. Holmes I wrote to 
several companies asking for information on this subject, and 
they kindly offered to obtain it through French and German 
friends, stating that they did not have it themselves. They 
have stated many points in their letters which I shall not 
trouble you with reading. The Otto Engine Company said they 
would design an engine for that purpose. 

Prof. GOSS: This would involve small engines? 

Prof. FERUALD: Yes, sir. One of the questions to be 
settled is what substances are to be included. 

Dr. HOLMES: At present, interest is in this denatured 
alcohol; and many of the Congressmen say, take up the question 
of alcohol and make some tests as far-as practicable. 



























135 


Prof. GOSS: Gas engine "builders all oyer the country 
would like to learn,all about it. 

Dr. HOLMES: It should be done. 

Prof. PERHALD: There is one point, and that is in regard 
to the Agricultural Department. I have come in touch with the 
man in the Agricultural Department and I have known him to be 
working on it. He is a pusher and a driver. He wrote that 
he was going to take up the work for the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment; and it is a question as to what lines each will take up 
so there will be no conflict, or interference or duplication, 
or unpleasant rivalry which will condemn the work of one and 
bring that of the other into special prominence. 

Dr. HOLMES: The duty of the Agricultural Department is to 

ascertain how it can be produced; we have nothing to do with 

» 

that phase of the question. Our duty and interest lie in de¬ 
termining its possibilities for power purposes. There is a 
gentleman in the Agricultural Department connected with the 
Irrigation branch; and he is competing with the Bureaus in his 
own department. It is within the scope of the duties of the 
Chairman of this Committee after we have obtained certain re¬ 
sults to ascertain from the President who is to continue the 
work. 

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Gibbs, how do you feel on this subject? 

Mr. GIBBS: I feel we should go ahead, at least with the 
two things, gasoline and alcohol, and leave the rest alone. 

Prof. MUHBOE: I have met some of the Congressmen in con- 










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156 


nection with this matter and know they have assumed a serious 
responsibility in advocating this bill, and Congress is com¬ 
mitted to it. Seven were opposed to it in the Senate and none 
in the House. If this Board after due test gave out any opin¬ 
ion, it would be considered very authoritative. I am not 
confident it will be a success. 

Prof. GOSS: I move that we approve Item 7, omitting "gas 
etc” from the end; so that it will read: "7 - The relative 
fuel values of alcohol and gasoline." 

Mr. STOTT: Seconded. 

The CHAIRMAN: Unless there is objection it is so ordered 

Prof. PERNALD: I would like to have some general clause 
expressing the opinion that it is desirable to do some of this 
"field work". 

Dr. HOLMES: I make the motion that we include a sug¬ 
gestion to the effect that we consider the field work as im¬ 
portant and desirable. 

Motion is seconded. 

The CHAIRMAN: Unless there is objection it is so ordered. 

The CHAIRMAN: We can add to that, that wherever it is 
found advisable to delegate any of the field work it can be 
done under the same conditions as obtained in the Boiler Div¬ 
ision. If there is no objection that will be ordered. 

There seems to be none. It is so ordered. 

The motion to adjourn is in order. 

Motion to adjourn made, seconded, stated and carried 

The CHAIRMAN: Committee will stand adjourned until 9 












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137 


PROCEEDINGS OP NEW YORK CONFERENCE 
AUGUST 11th, 1906. 


The Chairman called the meeting to order at 9:30 A.M. 

The CHAIRMAN: The subject we ended with last night was 
gas producers, and it may be possible that since sleeping over 
the subject some gentleman has something he wishes to add to 
the discussion of last evening. Is there any further sugges¬ 
tion to be advanced in regard to the work of the Gas Producer 
Division? 

Prof. WHITE; have you anything to add? 

Prof. WHITE: Nothing further, Mr. Chairman? 

The CHAIRMAN: Professor Jacobus? 

Prof. JACOBUS: Nothing, no sir. 

Prof. MUNROE: In connection with that subject, it was 
proposed that the tests should be made of Denatured Alcohol 
and Gasoline. I presume it was the desire to make the tests 
in regard to the motive power. 

Some years ago I had occasion to make a lot of experi¬ 
ments on gasoline, which would be of interest in connection 
with the carrying of flame through tubes; and it seems to me 
if opportunity could be had to avail ourselves of them, that 
these experiments might prove to be of considerable value. 

The experiments were for the purpose of ascertaining the dis¬ 
tance which gasoline would flash through tubes. The question 
came up through an accident caused by or alleged to be caused 






138 


toy an accident in a Pennsylvania Railroad yard. It was alleged 
the man had been injured through a sewer explosion caused toy 
flame passing into the sewer from the Pennsylvania works; the 
flame having been carried through this sewer many hundred feet 
in length. I began with tubes of small diameter and extended 
them to tubes of four inches in diameter; and I found there 
was a relation between the length the flash entered the tube 
and the diameter of the tube. Experiments were made by allow¬ 
ing gasoline to flow through until there was a saturated mix¬ 
ture; then the flame was applied and the distance which the 
flame entered the tube was noted. The passage of the flame 
was followed by a cooling of the wall; and it seems that the 
diameter of the tube had some effect on the distance. Valu¬ 
able information could be acquired if we were to continue ex¬ 
periments on that line. 

Dr. HOLMES: They would also have a value on the producing 
power of the motor. 

Prof. MUHROE: It bears on the cooling effect on tubes 
of the passage of a flame through them. 

Prof. EERITALD: I will try to get some information. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Alcohol would be less dangerous in such 
places as sewers than the gasoline would. Many explosions 
have occurred in Hew York City sewers, which have been attri¬ 
buted to the gasoline discharged into them from the garages. 

Prof. BRECKEHRIDGE: Some experiments were made with a 
big cast-iron cylinder sixteen inches long and _in 









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139 


diameter, tilled with, known volumes of dry air and gasoline, so 
as to have a known mixture, and a record was kept of the time 
of the diminishing pressures, the idea being to ascertain the 
available pressures for known distances. 

Dr. HOLMES: Admiral Hae was telling me a few days ago an 
interesting feature in connection with the gas-producer de¬ 
velopment. He said that Mr. Lewis Nixon was endeavoring to 
introduce the gas producer on warships. 

Admiral HAE: The trouble now is that the plant is too 
heavy; if you can do away with some of the washers and other 
things connected with it it would be better suited to naval 
needs. 

Dr. HOLMES: That illustrates the importance of this 
thing; but shows it is impossible until it has been improved. 

Prof. EERHALD: One of the objects I have in mind in get¬ 
ting this started is to solve a naval problem; it is to prepare 
for such a demand on its engines as a warship has when it 
goes into action. The vessel is running along on a normal 
rate of speed; how quickly can she get up extreme power and 
push the engines. This is sporadic action where you want the 
ultimate in the briefest possible time and for a comparatively 
short time. On a few occasions we have had our engines at 235 
h.p. jumped to 295 and run at that rate for about half an hour. 

That is a vital point in naval work. 

Dr. HOLMES: In connection with this alcohol problem we 
have the question of the comparative fuel value of alcohol 


























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140 


and gasoline. Would not that "be of interest in connection with 
the naval launches? 

Admiral RAE: We would prefer the alcohol on account of the 
freedom from danger and risk of carrying large quantities of 
gasoline. That is particularly true in submarine boats. 

The CHAIRMAIT: Has anybody anything to add to the question 
of gas producers or the other subjects of last evening? 

I do not like to add that the more I have thought of this 
subject the more I think this action of Congress in connection 
with alcohol was a very far-reaching thing, and that the im¬ 
portance of the subject is such that it demands energetic ac¬ 
tion on our part. I am really of the opinion that it would be 
advisable for us to let other subjects rest in order to bring 
that forward. It is to be considered not only for power pur¬ 
poses but for its other uses. Take the question of the use of 
alcohol in the arts and trades as a solvent, where it has been 
impossible to use it widely under the-present conditions of 
paying two dollars tax to the Government. Wide use has been 
impossible. I should be very much disappointed to see alcohol 
go back to the place where it was before the passage of this 
act. 

Dr. HOLMES: As having a bearing on that, the Jamestown 
Exposition people have asked Dr. Munroe to submit an exhibit 
that will illustrate the characteristics of denatured alcohol, 
and he has taken that subject up with them. They are quite 

i 

anxious also to have the different Government Bureaus exhibit 





* 





141 


such of their work as will help to advertise that particular 
thing. 

They have asked the Geological Survey to illustrate as 
much of their tests as would show this up without great ex¬ 
pense; and it seems likely that it would he advisable for us to 
carry on some of these alcohol tests during the Exposition and 
popularize the work. 

The CHAIRMAN: We have five subjects this morning for our 
consideration. The first is the exploration of the coal and 
lignite mines owned by the Government. Dr. Holmes will tell 
us something about that. 

Dr. HOLMES: At a meeting in Washington of this Committee, 
two or three months ago, a paper was drawn up fprmally asking 
the President to withdraw from entry and occupation the coal 
and lignite lands owned by the Government until the Govern¬ 
ment could get information which would enable it to dispose 
of the lands intelligently, whether by sale or * otherwise. 

V 

This referred to those lands in the far West. 

That matter was referred to the Secretary of the Inter¬ 
ior, and he called for further information on which action 
might be based. I have noticed that the Secretary has since 
then withdrawn from sale and entry for the present, 3,000,000 
acres of land. It was found that there were 45,000,000 acres 
of land which might contain coal and lignite. Those 3,000,000 
represent the first withdrawal, and the rest will be withdrawn 
as fast and as far as the information obtained renders it ad- 

































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142 


vi sable. 

low, it was asked that steps be taken by this Board, or 
by the Geological Survey at the suggestion of this Board, look¬ 
ing to a more thorough exploration of those lands. At the 
request of the Geological Survey out of the total appropria¬ 
tion of $250,000 granted for this investigation, $5,000 was 
set aside with the approval of the Secretary to be devoted to 
this purpose. To that the Geological Survey added $20,000 
more; that is $20,000 from the regular fund and $5000 from our 
fund, making a total of $25,000. This is to be used for the 
defraying of the expense of collecting samples and obtaining 
information in relation to the coal and lignites. Those sam- 
pies will be of three different kinds. From every "prospect 
opening", whether made by prospectors or by this survey, there 
would be samples collected for chemical analyses; two samples 
from every opening, and ten samples from the larger openings. 
Those are collected by cutting down the face of the deposit. 
Each is sent to the coal testing plant for examination, chem¬ 
ically, and separately. Where it is a considerable distance 

from the railroad station a sample of 500 lbs. is collected, 
if the deposit is favorable. 

In all cases where the deposit seems to be particularly 
important and within a few miles of a railway, a sufficient 
quantity is collected to make a car-load sample to be tested 
under a boiler or a gas producer. 

We hope to gather a considerable amount of information 






















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143 


during the present year, and it is estimated that taking up 
the survey of 45,000,000 acres of this land that with three or 
four years of work on that basis 40,000 dollars a year would 
he required to complete that exploration. 

I think that much general information on this subject 
should be presented to this Board as the initiative was taken 
by the Executive Committee of this Board. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further discussion of this subject -- 
the coal and lignite lands of the Government? 

Dr. HO L M E S: The method of collecting the field samples 

* 

for this work is the same as we have followed up. Usually 
two men go to each mine or deposit, and collect samples and 
ship them. These samples were frequently stolen in transit,but 
they are now tagged as property of the Government of the United 
States; so usually our samples now go through without molesta¬ 
tion. 

We have never felt satisfied that washing was being done 
satisfactorily at the plants; sometimes we got favorable re¬ 
sults and sometimes we did not. Members of the Board like Mr. 
Bush know how difficult it is to handle all coals alike, and 
wash coals of certain kinds by any method; and when the ques¬ 
tion involved is Sulphur, which in its fine form will not take 
advantage of its specific gravity, the problem is not without 
difficulty. The difficulty we had was t& find a man with 
practical experience in coal washing of an investigating spir¬ 
it. This year we found a man experienced in that line; but 






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144 


very few bright and well trained men have gene into this work 
yet. Meanwhile we are only doing as much as is necessary in 
connection with the further investigation of samples which 
come in. We will pay adequate compensation and expenses to 
the right man; so that he can travel in any part of the United 
States to study the methods and conduct any investigations he 
wishes to make. We shall also have him visit German;/, as they 
are ahead of us there in this field of work. 

Prof. WHITE: Are you prohibited from importing a man? 

4 

Dr. HOLMES: Probably not, if we go about it quietly. 

Mr. D 4 IEYILLIEHS: You can get Lieutenant Esser of Koch, 
with the Humboldt Engineering Works. 

Mr. BUSH: You vrlll find many who get good results from 
their individual plant; but they are gt d for nothing when you 
get them to some other washer. I thiv much can be learned by 
a study of the different forms of washers. We know that 
washing coals is a comparatively new thing in this country, yet 
it is undoubtedly going to start on a long run from this time 
on in the study of our fuel problem* 

It is very important in connection with a new supply 01 

c oke. 

Mr. D*IHVILLIEBS: At Koch they get coals of all kinds. 
Lieut. Esser said they had coals come even from Africa, and he 
has successfully solved nearly every problem he has undertaken. 
If vou could secure his services you would have a splendid man 
and one who has dealt with the problems you have mentioned. 







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145 


Dr. HOUSES: The point just mentioned in regard to coking 
is something we must take up. During the Exposition in 1904 
we got a man recommended as the best coking expert in Connell- 
ville District; and his tests of samples from that district 
were all good; "but from all other districts he got poor re¬ 
sults. ¥e should get hold of a college graduate who has had 
certain experience and have him visit the coking plants of the 
United States and learn his lessons all over again. We got 
such a man and he succeeded where the Connellsville expert had 
failed. He succeeded in making coke in the "bee-hive oven 
too of samples which in one or two cases another man had said 
"if it had not "been done by the Government he would have said 
it was a damn lie”. 

The coking feature is very important. In the lignite 
coke and coal which are "being "briquetted they are requiring 
that they shall have a less and less percentage of ash; and the 
specifications for the French Torpedo boats the specifications 
do not admit of more than three percent, and in the railroad 
service they have a minimum of five percent of ash. They 
must take the ordinary coal and wash it for that purpose. 

Mr. D’INVILLIERS: I think it would be well to bear in 
mind the desirability of mixing coal for coking, if you have 
not done so. It has been demonstrated by the retort ovens that 
thev can not only make as good but a better coke. 

V w 

Dr. HOLMES: And by compression they have been able to 


make a denser coke. 








146 


Mr. D’IBVILLIERS: The Otto Hoffman people say they can 
make it on twenty-four hours notice, to order. 

Dr.HOLMES: What we have been endeavoring to do at the 
plant is to briquette the slacks of different coals. In many 
of the coa.1 mines, particularly of the Mississippi Valley in 
many places they sell some for metallurgical purposes and a 
great deal is sold at a price to get it out of the way;there 
should be some way of using that slack to advantage. The rail¬ 
way companies have taken up the question,and half a dozen of 
them have shipped into the plant from 100 to 300 tons, which 
they have asked us to use in our experiments for briquetting, 
to see whether it is feasible to take this slack, which in 
large piles is in their way, and use it for locomotive pur¬ 
poses. In one of the tests made by an engineer he claims to 
have gotten a briquette efficiency of 60 percent above lump 
coal. Of course, as Professor Goss says, you cannot tell from 
one or even half a dozen tests on a locomotive in use. 

That illustrates the basis of the interest they are tak¬ 
ing in this work. How we are trying to devise means for 
briquetting either for use on locomotives or for metallurgical 
purposes. The question of washing comes in there too as to 
whether or not their quality can be improved for service. 

The Drench and Belgians say the ash must not exceed five per¬ 
cent, - and that is in the briquettes they use. 

Mr.D f IBVILLIERS: The object should be to get the most 
efficient fuel. Do you remember the tests of briquettes at 









































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147 


Altoona, five or six years ago, Kr. Chairman? 

The CHAIRMAN: No, we did not have charge of the experi¬ 
ments. I remember the tests, however. 

Nr. HOLMES: The increased efficiency in the case I have 

mentioned seems to he due not to lessening the ash hut to the 
uniform size of the briquettes, which were about the size of 
those ink-stands (indicating about 2” by 3” cubes). They 
could fill up their fire-box and let them run without firing 
or opening the door. 

Mr. N 1 INVILLIEHS: Nidn't they find under forced draft that 
they broke down and tended to choke up the flues? 

Nr. HOLMES: No, sir; it seems not. 

Mr. N*INVILLIEHS: That was the trouble we found. 

Nr. HOLMES: I found on the Belgian railroads that the 
practice was not to open the fire-box for one hour. They said 
their passenger locomotives must use a certain amount of bri¬ 
quettes and that the slow freight used them sometimes for a 
spurt or on a heavy grade; but the ordinary passenger trains 
would only use them when behind in their schedule or on steep 
grades. 

The CHAIRMAN: I noticed in Prance this year some large 
briquettes weighing about twenty pounds. 

Mr. N»INVILLIEHS: 22 lbs. is the standard weight - 10 kilo- 

/ 

grams. 

The CHAIRMAN: Those are fired without breaking, are they? 

Nr. HOLMES: Most of them are broken. 






















































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148 


The CHAIRMAN: What is the object of the large ones? 

Mr. D* IirvILLIEBS : Ease of manufacture. 

Dr. HOLMES: And they say in handling them in the tropics 
the darkey will only handle one briquette at a time, whether it 
weighs twenty pounds or twenty ounces. They are manufactured 
more cheaply per ton, also. The engineer of motive power of 
the Missouri Pacific said he prefers those smaller briquettes 
as they burn with greater efficiency. 

The CHAIRMAN: Has anyone any questions to ask in regard 
to washings and briquettes, and the exploration of coal aid 
lignite lands owned by the United States Government? 

Prof. BRECTTEURIDGE: What does it cost to briquette coal 
Tier ton? 

Dr. HOLMES: That is widely variable; and with our exper¬ 
iments it has been difficult to estimate. The Germans esti¬ 
mate that the mining, drying, handling and briquetting in Ger¬ 
many are less than fifty cents per ton. But they use no 
binder. Sometimes the pitch costs fifty, or sixty or seventy 
cents per ton. They use generally from seven to nine per¬ 
cent of pitch. In Germany, Prance and England, most of the 
briquettes we have made are from six to seven percent of pitch. 

Mr. D 1 INVILLIEBS: How large are the briquettes? 

Dr. HOLMES: Prom one to six pounds. 

Mr. BAHRUS: The process is what? 

Dr. HOLMES: The coal is crushed to pea size; if very wet 
it is dried, and if not it is passed on to a conveyorjanother 

























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149 


conveyor carries the pitch and the remainder of the coaljand 
these are thoroughly mixed together. They go through a pipe 
or tube 12 or 13 inches in diameter to a cylinder above the 
press where they are mixed with steam; and in that heated con¬ 
dition it comes down and is pressed into briquettes by machines 
working under 45 lbs. pressure to the sq. in. The machine we 
have moves horizontally, and with each swing it makes 24 bri¬ 
quettes -- 12 as it swings each way. 

Mr. BARRUS: How do you determine that coal needs washing? 

Dr. HOLLOS: By analysis. If it has more than five, six 
or seven percent of Sulphur. 

Mr. BARHUS: Do you wash away a good deal of the coal? 

Dr. HOLMES: Where it is fine we do. The Germans in their 
practice separate their fine coal by screening. 

Mr. BARRUS: Is it necessary to wash it? 

Dr. HOT JOS: Where it has slate and bone mixed it is nec¬ 
essary to crush it. 

The CHAIRMAN: Does the very fine slack coal have less ash 
than the coarser coal? 

Mr. BUSH: The finer coal has less. You lose very little 
coal with the sludge tank; that is the highest class of fuel 
when it is dried; of course it carries an excess of moisture. 
That is almost pure coal. 

The CHAIRMAN: Does not the question of friability apply 
more to the coal than to the accompanying impurities? 

Dr. HOLMES: Yes, sir. 




150 


Prof. MUHROE; Is not the difficulty of getting a satis¬ 
factory machine for briquetting one of the difficult points of 
this art? I visited a plant some time ago and they were then 
repairing their machine, and they have been making repairs on 
it now. I had some experience with briquetting and anthracite 
fuel. Prince & Co. of Boston made a $5.00 briquette coal from 
'*1.50 slack or small size coal, at the collieries. The stove 
size coals brought a satisfactory price; but the pea size did 
not after you took out the cost of briquetting. That firm 
failed to make a satisfactory stove size coal. The smaller 
ones they have made very satisfactory. Those show very well 
under stationary boilers, and they were so hard I could throw 
them against a wall without them breaking; but with the forced 
draft under locomotives they went all to pieces. 

Dr.HOLMES: I saw some machines abroad that had been used 
for t we n ty ye ar s . 

Prof.WHITE: Have you considered getting rid of the finer 
dust by the settling process? 

Hr. BUSH: The Silurian washer does that; they call that a 

sludge recovery. 

Dr. HOLMES: With the Baum washer they have introduced the 
same thitfg. 

The CHAIRMAIT: I would like to ask Professor Lord as to 
whether this fine slack coal has lost calorific power more 
than is brought about by the general deterioration ol the coal? 

Prof. LORD: I cannot quote figures but I made a number of 




151 


tests at different times on the values of these things, and 
particularly the washed coal from the Luray washers. Where 
the coal was fresh there was not much difference; hut the slack 
coals will lose on standing; as long as they are protected 
from ozidation it is not so had. 

The CHAIRMAN: The question of storing coal is an import¬ 
ant one. At certain seasons of the year the railroads can haul 
coal at a much lower rate than at other times. Unfortunately 
the greatest demand for coal is simultaneous with the season of 
greatest difficulty in transportation. The most favorable 
proposition at this time is submarine storage of the coal. 

That will come forward in the next few years very prominently. 

Mr. BUSH: It is only the smallest size coals that give any 
trouble in storing under w ater; that will fire after sixty 
or ninety days. But in sizes above that it don’t go in to any 
great extent. 

The CHAIRMAN: Is the Government storing coal under water, 
Admiral? 

Admiral RAE: The Bureau of Equipment is making some exper¬ 
iments at storing under water. 

Mr. D'lOTILLIERS: Nature is making that experiment in 

every coal field . In the Appalachian : hregion the black- 

% 

smiths and other users of coal in the river bottoms prefer the 
coal which has been wetted. The sulphur has leacked out,and all 
users will mine out of a stream, and say they get better re¬ 
sults from that coal than coal mined on a hill. 








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152 


Prof. LORD: Take a "bottle with a rubber stopper, fill it 
with samples of coal; then if you cork the bottle for a long 
time when you open it you will find a partial vacuum at the 
bottom. 

Dr.HOLMES: There are at least two of the large coal compan¬ 
ies in the East, Admiral, which wrote letters in which they 
offered to co-operate with me in making tests of storage under 
w r ater, both fresh and salt, and also brackish, in comparison 
with storage above ground. 

Admiral RAE: I think the Bureau of Equipment is storing 
under water at some points; and I think they would gladly co- 

ft 

operate with this Board. 

The CHAIRMAN: Their naval Station at the Washington Navy 
Yard would afford opportunity for fresh-water storage, and 
Charleston or some other sea-coast point would give salt water 
and Philadelphia Navy Yard would afford the brackish water. 

Prof. JACOBUS: Are the tests on briquettes merely for 
power purposes or fuels for domestic use as well? 

Dr. HOLMES: Domestic use also. The binder costs from 
sixty to seventy cents per ton. 

Prof.JACOBUS: We should have some tests to show the dif¬ 
ference between different briquettes. The briquettes I tested 
had from eight to nine percent of pitch binder. 

Prof. LORD: In Chicago we tested it on the boilers,and 
then to get a little further information I shipped a ton to 
my house and had them put it in the cellar and turned it over 





* 






























153 


i 

then to the domestics. I found it was necessary/ - to keep them 
from constant poking of it. If you leave the briquettes alone 
it is all right, hut if you begin to poke at them then the 
pitch begins to run, and they fall apart. 

Mr. D*INVTLLIERS: It was claimed that a man could get a 
higher percentage of efficiency. 

The CHAIRMAN: It is well known that an anthracite fire 
must not be meddled with. We think ninety miles is the maximum 
run we can get out of anthracite fire at high speed;and the 
locomotives running on the Mew York Division have to have ex¬ 
pert firemen to do that^and he does it simply through his skill 
or d g o o d man ?„g e m e n t. 

Mr. D*INVILLIERS: That hew York Division is the only 
place where they have expert firemen, isn't it? 

The CHAIRMAN: They are generally bad enough. 

Mr. D’INVILLIERS: The general consensus of opinion among- 
your firemen is that unless there is a great deal of smoke 
coming from the stack that they are not getting good results. 

Prof.JACOBUS: There is another thing I have noticed in 
regard to using anthracite coal for domestic purposes. In 
some of the anthracite coals where the briquettes were made as 

large as those ink-stands (indicating) they would not burn 

* 

well. But if we made them nut-size they would butn out with 
a good fire; whereas the fire was only of a dull red when the 
briquettes were of the size of those ink-stands (indicating) 

The larger size briquettes did not burn well and the smaller 




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154 


i 


sizes did. 

Mr. BUSH: The large Briquette has less erosion in handling 
and unloading. 

Mr. D* I1TVILLIERS: Could you not dispose of the negro hand¬ 
ling tiie coal by making the very small briquettes? I do not 
know what becomes of the ash and the sulphur in them, but ev¬ 
ery briquette I ever saw gave a pulverient ash. It is a little 
dusty, but it is an ideal fuel for storage and handling; and 
there is no obstruction of firebricks in stoves. 

Mr. BUSH: The Unions of Labor will take up the question 
with you then. They kick if you give them fine coal;and they 
kick if it is large. It has almost reached the point where you 
must roll your coal up in tissue paper and ship it as you do 
oranges. 

Mr. D’INVILLIERS: I was told by a fireman that the reason 
they make a large briquette was on account of storage space, 
especially on vessels. 

Prof. BKECKEURIDGE: I think in Germany they use briquettes 
for stone walls and fences until they are ready to use them, 
for fuel purposes. 

Mr. BUSH: They stand the shipment very well; a gentleman 
brought one to me down in Mexico, and the edges were broken 
very little if at all. 

Mr. INVILLIERS: I have seen the ten kilos or 22 lb. 
size; and there was very little loss on them. 

Dr. HOLMES: Is there any reason why we should not capture 



I 


155 


that briquette trade in Mexico? The English and Germans now 
have it. 

Mr .D f 11TVILLIERS: The only reason is because we do not make 
our coal into briquettes. 

Dr.HOLMES: The difficulty of the briquette industry in the 
Central American Trade, such as Mexico, is that we should bri¬ 
quette the coal if we are to compete with the English and Ger¬ 
mans. They want that particular uniform size. 

Mr. 5ARKUS: What is the cost of briquetting? 

Dr.HOLMES: Seventy-five cents, one dollar and a dollar and 
a quarter, per ton;they claim to briquette in some cases bi¬ 
tuminous coal for less than seventy-five cents. 

Dr.HOLMES: The loose material on these foreign railroads 
is frequently watered. They put the coal in wet. Some of the 
engineers claim it helps to make heat. It certainly keeps 
down the smoke. 

The CHAIRMAN: I think there is a philosophical reason back 
of that; namely:- that carbon does not combine with oxygen in 
the absence of water-vapor. Experiments made to demonstrate 

that point indicate that absolutely dry carbon with absolutely 

, *■ 

dry oxygen when heated to redness, and above, that you have 
no carbonic acid; and that it is according to the amount of 
water vapor present that you have CO; in other words, the com¬ 
bination does not take place in the absence of water-vapor. 

How it is commonly well-known fact that a cupola will melt 
more iron on a damp, foggy day than on a clear day, and that 









after pumping some "barrels of water through your "blast fur¬ 
naces your furnace works freer and makes more metal on such a 
damp day than it does on a dry day. The firemen say the coal 
"burns better if it is wet. 

I have thought whether there was not another feature:-- 
Given a certain amount of heat in a certain weight of hot gases 
is more of that heat transmitted to a heating surface if those 
hot gases are largely water-vapor, or nitrogen or CO. In other 
words, is not the transmission of the heat from the hot gases 
to the heating surface -- the boiler-- a function of the na¬ 
ture of the hot gases; and is it not possible that steam is a 
more valuable heat carrier in transmitting the heat to the 
boiler than nitrogen? 

I broached that in connection with the tests at the St. 
Louis Exposition, and no opportunity came to get positive 
evidence on the subject. But it seems to me that the fact 
that carbon does not combine with oxygen in the absence of 
water vapor, might explain the fireman's wetting of the coal. 

Prof.MUitfROE: The theory is that an electrical dissociation 
must take place before the further chemical reaction can go on. 

Mr. D'INVILLIERS: Won't our calculations in reference to 
the percentage of moisture have to be revised in that event? 

Mr.RAY: As far as the boiler and furnace are concerned. 

Prof.WHITE: If moisture has a beneficial effect, won't 
the opinion that an excess of moisture in coal is a deleter¬ 
ious element have to be revised? We are buying water, the en- 




157 


gineer will think; and it may he he can get it in some other 
way much cheaper. 

Prof :MUHHOE: It may he that an excess of moisture is not 
right; that it is a question of quantity, or proportion. The 
proper quantity being advantageous. 

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Gayley's experiments in connection with 
dry air are for gas furnaces. When he talked the matter over 
with me, as he did in conversation, I was inclined to say that 
his experiments resulted in failure because he took the mois¬ 
ture out of the air so as to get a uniform material to blow 
into the blast furnace, and the amount of moisture he leaves 
is but one grain or one and one-half grains to the cubic foot . 
He has since experienced no difficulty with that amount of 
moisture. 

Mr. HAY: Mr.J.W.Mellor, in "Chemical Statistics" gives a 
great many experiments on the rate of various combustibles 
with varying percentages of water-vapor, and every one has a 
maximum of water vapor varying from three to eight percent; 
and in confirmation of all this Mr.Matlock of the Tweed Gas 
Light Company in St.Louis showed me thirty tests he made on a 
chain stoker on coal from Illinois, and he bought a lot of 
this coal and mixed it and he ran tests every day, and every 
other day he soaked his coal with water, and out ol the thir¬ 
ty tests, fifteen with water—soaked coal and fifteen as it came 
from the mines, and with the fifteen tests made with wet coal 
the steam obtained per pound of coal purchased was three to 




159 


The CHAIRMAN: The combustion has taken place in the pres¬ 
ence of the water vapor. I thought there was a constant inter¬ 
change along in the furnace from CO to CO^; and it is CO 
that reduces the ferrous-oxide. 

Prof. LORD: Immediately above the tuvures the gases are 
almost entirely CO 

Mr.MAHON: It seems that the idea advanced by Prof. Lord 
is exactly what takes place in the blast furnace;the greatest 
influence on the output is the rate at which the charge des¬ 
cends? if you lower the temperature the mass descends and the 
charge goes do?m slower.You get the heat further up in furnace 

Erof.LORD: I think it is a well known fact among gas fur¬ 
nace people, and they all say that a damp day will close the 
grain of the iron. Have you observed that, Mr. Mahon? 

Mr.Mahon: I have not; but I think it can be borne out by 
theory. 

The CHAIRMAN: It was mentioned here yesterday that very 
high temperatures in hot gases for steam production are not 
desirable. I think Mr. Ray mentioned that. The philosophy 
of that I have not studied out yet. The idea is not entirely 
new, but it may be that the presence of this water vapor, or 
excess of water, may have an influence in diminishing the tem¬ 
perature of the heated gases, and thus be advantageous. 

Mr.RAY:The amount of heat given to a centimetre of sur 
face is proportioned to the temperature difference between the 
gases and the water; and the number of molecules which strike 






160 


that surface per second,and that is proportional to the densi¬ 
ty. As you raise the temperature you beat your own game. 

Then there is the velocity with which the gases go over 
the surface, removing the coal molecule which is already there. 
Then there is the specific heat of the steam to be considered. 
The boiler as a heat absorber is very efficienc. 

Prof.LOKD: There is no doubt about the advantage of wet¬ 
ting the coal or the firemen would not continue it. 

The CKAISMA2J: I have found that the practical man’s ex¬ 
planation of fundamental phenomena you had better let go over 
your shoulder; but his observations of fact you had better give 
heed to. Some time ago the men, the workingmen said that 
sifted iron fillings would not make a rough joint. It was the 
custom to use them. The practical men said sifted ones would 
not do it; the scientists said it would. It finally came to 
be tested to ascertain why it would not and it was found that 
they consisted of 95 percent graphite. 

The next subject for our consideration is Coking and the 

By-products. 

Dr.HOLLIES: The work done thus far, as all of you know,has 
been with the ordinary bee-hive oven because at the St.Louis 
plant it was found it would cost $75,000 >to $100,000 to put 
up a by-product plant and the appropriation was so limited. 

That limitation has been removed, and the present appropriation 
can be expended as we see fit. The Otto Hoffman people have 
offered us the use of a battery of by-product ovens located 








.. 






















.... ■ • • . 


.. . ■ * f. 







« 















. 







































161 


\ 


near Pittsburg. It is separated from the others, and we will 
have the advantage of association with the other ovens in the 
"battery, and we can have the use of that without any charge. 

The company may occasionally during the year wish to test 
a sample, but they can arrange that to suit us. We nofr have 
the advantage of going ahead as far as the equipment and funds 
are concerned, with by-product investigations. Mr. Belden 
and Professor Lord will be able to do something now in the way 
of by-product investigation. The charge will be six or eight 
tons. 

The chemical and other physical work supplementing that 
can be carried on to any extent to which the money may be 
available. 

Mr.L 1 I1T7ILLIERS: Where is the location of the Otto Hoff¬ 
man ovens? 

Dr.HOLMES: There is one at Glassport. 

Mr.D*IF/ILLIEBS: They will give use of one oven? 

Lr.HOLMES: One battery of ovens. 

Mr. MAHOM: The by-product equipment for one oven would be 
the same as for ten or twelve ovens; but it would be separate. 

This is a plant they have used for experimental purposes 
in the development of their own work. 

Prof. MUKHOE: It may perhaps be of interest to point out 
that in the examination of the statistics, the coke statis¬ 
tics for 1904, the increase for coal had been collected. The 
assumption was that the same yields oi coke, tar and other 





162 


compounds could have "been sold at the same price. The value 
of the coke and hy-products was something over §50,000,000;the 
added value at this rate had the by-products been collected 
would have been §35,000,000 additional for that year. 

Dr. HOLLIES: That is on the basis that one-sixth of the 
nitrogen was collected. In practice we get about one-sixth 
of the tota}. nitrogen as a by-product. In the Monn Gas Pro¬ 
ducer we claim to get about one-third. 

Prof MUMROE: Th$r claim a much closer approach to theory. 

Mr.D 1 IHVILLIERS:Have you had any comparative results 
from the Solvay oven and the Otto Hoffman ovens using the same 
coal in both types? 

Dr. HOLMES: Ho, sir. 

Mr. D*IHVILLIERS: My clients in a certain work have told 
me that the free gas in the Otto Hoffman oven is very much 
larger on the same coal than what was reported by the Solvay 
Company. It was very important for them to have a large quan¬ 
tity of gas. I took the matter up with the Solvay Company and 
they told me the most perfect coke will give the largest per¬ 
centages of by-products. I do not know about it, I am not 
enough acquainted with the details of their system to know 
where this comes in. 

Prof.LORD: That might mean a greater efficiency in their 
system? 

Mr. D ’INVILLIERS: Yes, sir. 

Prof.MUHROE: Was this illuminating or fuel gas? 








163 


Mr.D r INVILLIERS: They reported total gas produced and sold, 
and that gas sold was for illuminating purposes; it is only 
that portion of the gas they can sell. They sell a large 
portion of their yield. At Sparrows Point they send it into 
Baltimore to he used for illuminating purposes. At the Cam¬ 
den plant they send the gas to Trenton. They have reported a 
list of the plants and the use to which the gas is put. The 
quantities they can dispose of vary with the uses to which 
the gas can he put. 

Mr.BUSH: Illuminating gas they get about one-fifth. 

Dr.HOLMES: I should think the coal would vary considerably. 
Some coal has a very high heating value and some has a very 
high illuminating value. 

Prof.LORD: What■quantity of gas did you get per ton? 

Dr.HOLMES: I do not know exactly, Professor Lord. I can 

recall those -Valley coals that were shipped two or three 

years ago to New York. They had a high amount of gas in them; 
they had 12,000 cu.feet to the ton; hut they were low illum- 
inants and they were mixed with Westmoreland Coal to improve 
their luminosity. 

We are now able to save about one-sixth of the total ni¬ 
trogen; there is an interesting field trying to recover the 
other five-sixths. Ammonia-sulphate is worth $62 per ton,and 
out of the 400,000 tons of ammonia-sulphate which is available 
if all our coke was made in by-product ovens, if we could save 
all that we would have 2,400,000 tons of ammonia-sulphate in 






164 


this country each year. We have no special source of nitro¬ 
gen and we ai^e depending on Chili for most of our supply. The 
great possibility of ammonia-sulphate made from our coal is 
a very big problem. 

Mr.BUSH: Has the Agricultural Department shown that you 
can afford to pay $25.00 an acre for that and then get it back 
about four times over in a year? 

Dr.HOLMES: I made inquiry as to what progress had been 
made about getting Nitrogen out of the atmosphere;but no de¬ 
cided progress has been made during the past year. 

Prof.MUNROE: The burning of nitrogen in the air by the 
flaming arc; that is being done and potassium nitrate is being 
formed. We have all been interested in liquid air. They 
have managed to separate the components of the air very read¬ 
ily. 

The CHAIRMAN: If the Advisory Board has put itself on 
record as fav oring the study of coking and the by-products. 

If you are ready we will ask the questions and get a vote.Is 
there any further discussion? All in favor will say "aye"; 
contrary minded r, no M . It is carried and so ordered. 

The next is the prevention of accidents in using explos¬ 
ives in coal mines in the presence of coal dust and gases. 

Dr.HOLMES: This has come about through the discussion of 
this matter before Congress about increasing efficiency by 
lessening the waste of fuel in mining operations. Professor 
White and others brought the matter before this Board at the 




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165 


last meeting, stating that about fifty percent of the coal 
under ground in mines never gets to the surface. 

The CHAIHMA1T: And never will with the present methods of 
mining. The question came up as to what might be done to pre¬ 
vent accidents by studying the character of the explosions 
that take place in old mines. In Germany, Belgium and England 
there are stations for studying these things. The German and 
Belgium stations are located at mines where there is a nat¬ 
ural supply of the fire-damp or coal damp. In England 

they use a modified form of illuminating gas of about the same 
character; and they seek to determine the quantity and char¬ 
acter of explosions. 

The investigation it was thought could be carried on 
without great expenditure of time or money. It is needed and 
would meet a popular demand in that respect in certain direc¬ 
tions. As Prof. Munroe is more familiar than any of us on this 
subject, he can tell us how to regulate these explosions. 

Prof .MU1JROE: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I shall have 
to apologize for my presentation. I came a little bit pre¬ 
pared by bringing one of my previous publications on this sub¬ 
ject, it being a resume of the report of the English Inspectors 
of Explosives as I published in 1898. I have been interested 
in this subject for a long time, and have been collecting in¬ 
formation regarding explosions in mines. I have a large 

number of clippings stored up ior 30 m© other day in luture. 

We find that explosions in mines may be brought about by 








166 


explosions of gaseous mixtures, or dust mixed with air, may 
come where we have a finely divided substance and a supporter 
of combustion. If the ignition be by a flame at high tem¬ 
perature and the flame be projected into the inflamable mass, 
that will determine an explosion of the highest order, so that 
we then bring about a detonating explosion. 

Among the causes of accidents in mines due to explosions 
of those mixtures, comes the ignition by unprotected lamps; 
but a large number is due to the character of the explosives 
employed. We find many explosions may be produced as a result 
of the explosion and the flame which is projected into this 
inflammable mass. 

A great deal of work has been done in the past by study¬ 
ing the lamps; and it would be well to have some author 
itative opinion in this country on some form of lamp; so that 
when an explosion occurred and suit was brought, it could then 
be shown that the authorized lamp was or was not used. 

What we need most of all in this country is a Commission 
such as they have in England, which will pronounce authorita¬ 
tively on the quantity and the nature of explosives to be used 
in mines. In Great Britain they have now had for more than 
25 years an Inspector of Explosives under the Home Office, con¬ 
sisting of a group of officers, with Dr. Dupre as the chemist; 
and in England no explosive may be used for any purpose un¬ 
less it is authorized, after passing a test to determixie its 
qualities before it can be offered for sale. It is then added 










167 


to the permitted explosives. They have the authorized and the 
permitted explosives. 

Permitted explosives are those which have been tested at 
the station and found that they would not ignite with mines or 
a certain series of mines; and that is spoken of as being per¬ 
mitted in that class of mines. They determine not only the 
nature but the amount of the charge and the tamping. So the 
miners there are protected by the use of explosives of a well 
determined character, as well as the regulation of the amount 
of charge. 

As Hr.Holmes has said, different practices prevail at the 
stations on the Continent and in England. On the Continent, 

In Belgium, Germany and I think in Prance, they have experi¬ 
mental stations at the coal mines. They select a place and they 
make experiments by shooting into them with a cannon.. 

In England they established a station at Woolwich and they 
built a gallery and made gas-holders, and then they mixed the 
gases and then the gallery is filled and an explosion brought 
about in that gallery under conditions that can be well ob¬ 
served. In determining the way in which conditions can be car¬ 
ried out in the new stations, some were erected in connection 
with mines, and some independent stations. One of the criti¬ 
cisms made of the independent stations is that the station must 
manufacture its particular gas; and you cannot manufacture it 
and carry it to any distance without some changes taking place. 
It is the same with the coal dust experiments. As coal varies 





f ' '* / 



168 


this dust varies also in its chemical composition, and the 
coal dust must he brought to a particular station from a par¬ 
ticular gallery or mine. 

As I said, I have made a brief resume of the conditions 
relating to this subject and as our time is brief I will have 
it inserted in the record from this publication.(See Appendix) 

Now, we notice here that in the case of the Woolwich 
Gallery a person who has an explosive to offer for sale, hav¬ 
ing had it brought to the Home Office and tested by Dr.Dupre 
and authorized by His Majesty’s Inspectors of Explosives, they 
have a test made of it at this testing plant so that it may 

be put on the Permitted Explosives. This is done for a fee. 

•% 

The question is whether such a thing is feasible in this count¬ 
ry. We are faced by the fact that seventy percent of the es¬ 
tablishments manufacturing explosives in the United States are 
owned or controlled by a single party; and I believe that for 
a long time they would be unwilling to have the United States 
pass upon their product; and again there is no way of determin¬ 
ing or enforcing the the kind of explosive which can be used 
in the different States. Such a station could test such ex¬ 
plosives as it could get, and give an opinion, and trust here¬ 
after to have the opinion given the force and weight of law. 

In that feature - that of securing results - we differ from th« 
foreign governments. 

It was estimated that the station at Woolwich would cost 
$7500 for its erection. That was the original estimate; but I 










169 


do not know what the actual cost was. I think Dr. Holmes can 
tell us about the cost of that. 

Dr. HOLMES: It cost $10,000 for equipment up to date, and 
about $8,000 a year. They have three Army officers. 

Prof .MU2JR0E: What it is feasible to do at the present 
moment is to gather this information relating to this subject 
and prepare it for distribution -- 

The CHAIRMAN: Possibly it would be well to do that,since 
the genius of our Government is to educate the people by dis¬ 
tribution of ini'ormation, and then hold each individual re¬ 
sponsible for his own wrong-doing. On the question of explos¬ 
ives that do not ignite, I do not know how many there are made. 

Prof. MUNROE: There is a great variety. A flameless var¬ 
iety has been made by mingling with the explosives mixtures of 
some salts like sal-soda and salts of that sort. That is one 
method that has been adopted to produce smokeless powder.. The 
temperature of decomposition of ammonium nitrate is quite low, 
and the temperature of the explosion is quite lowj so low as 
not to bring about ignition, - Using also the nitrate substi¬ 
tution products as the explosive mass. We have not met with 
success here in attempting to introduce this. They are more 
difficult to explode. They take a blast-cap which is much 
stronger,and our miners and owners have objected. Use a 
five-force cap it ensures better work and a smaller charge of 
dynamite, and those caps are suitable with these explosives 
which are mere difficult to explode, but which are safer for 






170 


transportation and handling. Dr. Dudley on behalf of his rail- 

* 

road, lias had occasion to know of some of it that burned slowly 
for a long time out in the open. It is much safer for using, 
handling and for storage. 

Prof.LOUD: What is this Mazurite. 

Prof.MUNROB: Outside the owner of it there is only one 
other man that knows the composition of Mazurite - only one be¬ 
sides Mazy, and that is Dr. Dudley, our President ;and lie wont 
tell. 

% 

The CHAIRMAN: It is believed to be an absolutely safe ex¬ 
plosive to use in mines;it is a nitrate of ammonia explosive. 

I am at liberty to say that much. It is not far removed from 
a fifty percent dynamite; it competes with fifty percent dyna¬ 
mite in price. It requires a cap, like the Doramerite, Roberite, 
and Securite and explosives cf that character. 

Prof.WHITE: I have known cf the use of Mazurite in cer¬ 
tain uncertain mines in West Virginia. 

Mr.BUSH: Dr.Munroe has talked of the advantage of having 
an authorized explosive to use in mines; as to that I agree 
with him; but we should have to know first whether the Govern¬ 
ment was going to back up the explosive so that we could get 
it used. No industry is more dominated by the labor element 
than the coal miner’s; and you would almost have to have a law 
passed compelling the use of it to get the miner to change as 
he pays for the explosive. If we had a Commission to pass on 
the explosive and enforce the use of it, we could improve the 

























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171 


product from those mines and shut down the loss of life; al¬ 
though it would he impossible to stop the loss of life entire- 

* » 

1y as much of it comes from negligence and incompetence. 

To-day the miner seeks to do with powder what he did 

with the pick in the past. If we had a law like they have in 

European countries, which prohibits excessive charges of powder 
we would cut down the loss of life very largely. Take Indian 
Territory where it is under the jurisdiction of the United 
States Government, the Secretary of the Interior appoints the 
inspectors down there.The percentage of tons of coal mined per 
loss of life are the lowest there of any in the United States. 

That is brought about despite the fact that they have difficult 

mining there. Three years ago when the United Mine Y/orkers ex¬ 
tended their jurisdiction out that way they tried to make a 
scale on the mine-run system, instead of screened clean coal, 
and the mine owner was to take his chances on the percentage 
of impurities. I was the only operator there who refused to 
adopt a run-of-mine system. We have four mines that produce 
500,000 to 600,000 tons a year; and in the three years they 
have had the run-of-mine law in the territory we have not lost 
a man from blown-out shots. So you can see the percentage 
would be very much less. The Unions do not like the looks of 
that. You can always bring that up as an argument for care in 
the mining of coal. As Ur. Munroe said, it would not only in¬ 
crease the quantity of coal mined, but the quantity recovered. 

Large areas of coal are lost by the shot caving in roof of 







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172 


a mine in such a way that it is too expensive to open it up 
again. 

In Illinois they have a law that where the charge is more 
than two pounds of powder, the men must leave the mine except 
those especially employed in firing off the explosives. Re¬ 
ducing the charges down to two pounds there is little danger 
of explosions causing loss of life. For the first six months 
after this law went into effect they lost more life than ever 
"before; they killed sixteen shot-firers in Indian Territory 
within six weeks; and it got so that you could not get men to 
go in and fire the shots except niggers. 

We operators can do nothing, it is a matter for the Unit¬ 
ed States Government to take up as they do in foreign govern¬ 
ments, and men who put 35 and 40 inches of powder into a wall 
and then tamp it with dry slack would "be held for murder in 
case of accident.. 

The question is, do we want to take that up now, or after 
we have secured the information, then tr 2 ' to get the Nation 
and the States to enforce proper regulations. It is a matter 
that the Central Government must take hold of, and restrict 
the improper use of powder and explosives for this purpose. 

The CHAIRMAN: If I am not mistaken, the use of improper 
appliances is not the total cause of mine explosions and acci¬ 
dents. -I remember a case of fire-damp explosion, in Johnstown, 
about 35 miles from Altoona. That was a case of naked lights 
where they should have had safety lam^s; and the two men who 













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173 


caused that were 
found the s af e t y 
that mine in the 
The question 
ently a very much 


supposed to be careful mine bosses; and they 
lamp which they should have used in entering 
adjoining chamber. 

of the prevention of mine accidents is appar 
bigger one than that of the nature of the 


appliances used. 

Dr.HOLLIES: It was the appliances in the case you cited. 

The CKAIRMA27: Yes, sir; but it was a case ox carlessness 
too. Probably Mr. Bush could enlighten us on the number of 
accidents which are due to carelessness, as compared with those 
due to faulty appliances. 

/ 

Mr.BUSH: The miner is a fatalist; they are about the hard¬ 
est people to control that you can find. They are like the 
switchmen to jump on the front-board of a switching engine. 

The CHAIHKAh: The question is whether we feel it to be 
wise to recommend experiments on these lines at present. 

Mr.D*ILTILLIEHS: I have listened to the discussion with a 
great deal of interest,and it occurs to me that the idea of 
recommending these experiments is brought about by the fact 
tliat it is merely auxiliary to the work in hand. Bor a new 
departure it might be questionable whether the Board wished 
to put itself on record as favoring it or not. But in connec¬ 
tion with the other question of the gases it might be feasible 
to carry on these tests without a great expenditure of money. 

I think it is well to first have the opinion of the lab¬ 
oratory on this. There is no question that the mine operator 
















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174 


would prefer to have the safer explosive, and possibly we 
should consider this as one of the things that might he done 
even though we • .could not see any way for testing this matter 

The CHAIRMAN: Now, the question is whether you can test 
these explosions ’without a long gallery, and whether it is ad¬ 
visable at the present time to take hold of that I do not know 
I am merely stating the question. 

Prof.WHITE: There have been several tests of explosions 
in West Virginia in the last few years, and I confirm Prof. 
Lord’s opinion that it is because of not taking proper precau¬ 
tions of safe raining practice. 

Some of them are attributed to dust; but I think we need 
experiments: on that line; and I feel that the people carrying 
on these tests should take that up. 

Mr.BUSH: I do not think you will find a case where you 
have a dust explosion in a mine, where that would be the cause 
If you have a blown-out shot to raise dust and suspend it in 
the air it might if mixed with gas; but the more gasy a mine 
is the less excuse for that. I think the most dangerous mine 
is one that is pretty well ventilated and then the gas occas¬ 
ionally blows out from some pocket. 

Mr.D*IKVILLIERS: I went down into a mine shaft with a 
party in Uniontown; and we were told to be extremely careful; 
and at the bottom of the shaft a geologist took out a match 
and lit a cigar. 

The CHAIRMAN: What is your opinion, Professor Goss? 






> 





175 


Prof.GOSS: I do not think I have any special opinion, 

Mr. CHAIRMAN. The facts are well known, it seems to me. 

The CHAIRMAN: At the present time we are limited to pub¬ 
lishing information under present legislation. 

Prof .BBS CKENRIDGE: I think with the work outlined for 
the Boiler Division and the Gas Engine proposition is not a 
very cheap proposition. I am wondering whether there are 
funds of the Geological Survey other than the funds for fuel 

\ 

tests. 

Dr.HOLMES: Three things occur to me. The first is,lessen¬ 
ing the losses in mining and handling of fuels and increase 
the efficiency of the fuels of the country. One important point 
is to lessen the loss of life and the other is to lessen the 
quantity of coal lost. One bea.rs on the sentimental and hu¬ 
mane side and the other the economic or commercial side. If 
we did not save a dollar I think it would Be a good thing for 
this Board to collect all the data on the question of means of 
saving life. 

ITow, as to the funds for accomplishing those results; 
it is natural for the Chief of the Boiler Division to think 
he should have the full use of this money for his work; hut 
as Congress meets again in December we may have a proper rec¬ 
ommendation for an increased appropriation. If we cannot get 
money we can at least gather the information now extant, if it 
is considered wise in the opinion of those present. The only 
way you can accomplish results in tnis country is tin ou^n ed- 








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176 


ucating the public . The whole subject is comparatively un¬ 
known. We must put ini'ormation before the people which they 
can feel safe in relying upon as accurate, and which can be 
used as a basis for decisions of Courts and acts of Legislat¬ 
ures . 

The CHAIPMA1T: Is there any motion? 

Prof. WHITE: I move that the Board study the subject. 

Prof. G-OSS: I second the motion. 

The CHAIHMAxI: You have heard the motion. All in favor 
say "Aye”; contrary minded "Ho". It is carried and so ordered. 

I would like to suggest one question ?.-hich was brought 

out by Professor White at the general meeting of the Committee 

\ 

in Washington, at the organization meeting, namely; the case 
of miners and operators who have three veins of coal on 
their property - the upper one two feet, the middle 3-l/2 feet 
and the lower one 5 feet. How, under present commercial condi¬ 
tions the five foot vein is the only one that it is economical 
to operate; so that what is actually happening is that coal 
is being taken out of the five-foot vein as much as present 
mining practices will admit; and then the strata above tumble 
in, and the other two veins are hopelessly mixed up, and it is 
impossible to secure that coal thereafter. It has occurred to 
me that this Board should put itself on record in some way as 
protesting against that state of affairs. 

Would it not be advisable for this Board, under its func¬ 
tion to secure economy in fuel supply of this country, take 


















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177 


steps that might lead to legislation in Congress. 

Prof. WHITE: I would say that probably most destruction 
is where they leave two or three feet of the riff coals, which 
are available but laminated; there being six or eight inches 
of coal and then a layer of shale or slate, and then they leave 
more sulphur in the bottom, two to two and a half feet, in the 
bottom. It might be possible that those coals can be mined in 
some shape. 

Mr. BUSH: The only way I can see for us is to get some 
precedent established on the Government lands? 

Prof.GOSS: This seems to me to be a matter of the great¬ 
est importance and one that needs investigation to gather and 
illustrate the facts, which would lead to their publication 
and I therefore move that we have a special committee of three 
appointed to go into the general subject of mining and handling 
coals. 

The CKAIKMA1T: I second the motion. Is there any discussion? 

Mr. D’IHVILLIERS: Hasn’t the Government already formulated 
plans for the Phillipine Islands? 

The CKAIKMAU: The vote on that national lease of certain 
mines near Manila was lost. 

The Committee should be able to report back to this Board 
definite results, and to recommend that certain educational 
be taken by this Board with reference to the Government coal 
lands, those in the Phillipines as well as the others owned 
by the Government. 















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178 


That will get the people of the- country to thinking about 

It. 

Is there any discussion as to the desirability of the 
purpose of the motion? 

Prof.LORD: I think a Committee would be a good thing. 

Would not such a Committee have within its power the possibil¬ 
ity of making a publication which would present the facts and 
then add certain experiments in relation to firing and bri¬ 
quetting that would make an appeal to the coal property owners? 
The CHAIRMAN: We can only recommend; we cannot enforce. 
Prof.GOSS: That Committee can be of great service in ad¬ 
vising the Survey concerning the relative importance of ques¬ 
tions which have been discussed. I have in mind the thought 

that the Survey might prepare bulletins under the suggestion 

» 

of the Committee. 

Prof.LOKD: The questions involved in the suggestion of 
coal waste are of two kinds:- one is largely the political and 
social question, and on that we are not well qualified to pass. 
We are workmen along certain lines- we are not ipso facto 
students of social questions; but the committee could map out 
lines of work along which the expert manipulation of the plant 
could be made useful in bringing the subject to the attention 
of the ones who could bring about such things. 

The CHAIRMAN: Any further discussion? If not, all in favor 
say "Aye"; contrary minded "NO". It is carried. The Chair ap¬ 
points Professor White, Mr. Bush and Mr. D'Invilliers. 










179 


Anything further to come before the meeting? 

Prof.BBECKEKRIDGrE: I cannot let the meeting adjourn with¬ 
out expressing my appreciation of the kindly treatment given 
to the proposition recommended by the Boiler Division, as 
well - speaking for Professor Pernald - for the propositions of 
the Gas Producer Division. We have prepared these matters, 
and thought there would be suggested additions or matters to 
be stricken out. It is a pleasure for me to express my appre¬ 
ciation of the treatment received from this Board. 

I also take occasion to call attention to the possibility 
of this Commission having a life extending over more than one 
year. We will have opportunity to think of matters which should 

4 

be done, and we must make our plans for several years ahead. 

I trust the members will communicate their views at all times 
to Dr. Holmes, in order that they may be known from time to 
time. We will file all such thoughts away and keep them for 
the years to come; so please send your ideas on as you have 
them and do not withhold them for the meeting at the end of 
the year. 

Prof .LORD: I want to ask the members of the Commission 
to please make it their business to "kick" on the chemical 
work. I like to work where I feel somebody is looking for all 
the mistakes I make. The only time I feel badly is when people 
do not make enough trouble. How easy it is to make mistakes, 
and there is no corrective quite as good as somebody saying, 
if it is not right,’'You have made a mistake here”. I want to 






























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180 


know all the mistakes I make very promptly. I do not know 
all about coal. I do not expect to in this world - 

* 

MEMBER: The Professor may not he robbed of opportunity 
for continued study in the next. 

Prof.LORD: I do not know how it will be in the next. As 
I was saying: I want criticism. I do not mean fault-finding. 
Please all feel that I will take any amount of criticism in 
the full spirit of its meaning. 

Prof .EERNALD: Hr. Breckenridge has already expressed 
my appreciation of the receiption given to the Gas Producer 
Division, and Professor Lord has given my opinion in regard to 
criticism. The work which falls to my lot is a little bit 
new, and I shall appreciate the kindness of any members of 
the Committee who will put me in touch with anything in these 
lines. 

• (MOTION TO ADJOURN made, seconded, stated and carried.) 

The CHAIRMAN: The conference stands adjourned. 


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181 


"APPEPDIX" for insertion at page 168 - 
between lines 6 and 7. 


The more recent steps taken looking toward an increase in 
security in the working of these mines were, first, the order 
in Council of the English Home Office of December 16,1896, 
which prohibited the use of any explosive other than a "Per¬ 
mitted Explosive" after July Is, 1897, in all coal mines in 
which inflammable gas has been found within the previous six 
months, or in the roads of all coal mines which are not natur¬ 
ally wet throughout, and after January 1st,1898, the use of 
any explosive other than a permitted explosive is absolutely 
prohibited in every part of such mines, further, the use even 
of "permitted explosives" is prohibited unless (a- every charge 
is placed in properly drilled shot holes and has sufficient 
stemming, not in any case less than nine inches, (b) the appar¬ 
atus or method used for igniting the charge shall be incapable 
of igniting inflammable gas or coal dust; (c) every charge 
shall be fired by a competent person appointed in writing for 
this duty by the manager of the mine, and not being a con¬ 
tractor for any work in the mine involving the use of explos¬ 
ives, nor a person paid by such contractor, nor a-person whose 
wages depend on the amount of material to be gotten; (d) each 
explosive shall be used in the manner and subject to the con¬ 
ditions prescribed in the schedule of "permitted explosives". 
The use of explosives is prohibited in any main haulage road 
or main intake unless all workmen have been removed from the 










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182 


seam in which the shot is to he fired and all seams communi¬ 
cating with the shaft on the same level, except the men en¬ 
gaged in firing the shot and such other persons, not exceeding 
ten in number, as are necessarily engaged in attending to the 
ventilating furnaces, steam boilers, engines, machinery, wind - 
ing apparatus, signals, or horses or in inspecting the mine. 

The schedule of Permitted Explosives accompanying this 
order consists of Ammonite, Ardeer Powder, Bellite No.l and 
No.3, Carbonite, Dahmenite A, Electronite No.2, Kynite, Ho- 
burite No.3 and Westfallite. The composition of each and the 
method in which they are to be put up is given with great pre¬ 
cision, and what is of particular interest, the strength of 
the detonator to be used is specified for each explosive. 

In the case of each nitro-glycerine explosive it is especially 
prohibited to fire it when in the frozen condition. In its 
preliminary report of February 4th, 1897, the Committee con¬ 
cluded to use chambers for conducting its tests, where the 
conditions could be made uniform as possible. 







« 


















APPENDIX 


Papers read by 


Professors 


B RE CKENRIDGE and PERNALD. 






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BHIKF OUTLINE OE THE WORK OF THE GAS PRODUCER DIVISION, 

AND PROPOSED LINES FOR FUTURE INVESTIGATIONS. 

fcy 

Prof. R. H. FERNALD. 

Equipment 

The first producer-gas test at the Fuel Testing Plant was 
made the first week in October 1904. The plant installed at 
that time was a Taylor pressure gas producer furnished by R. D. 
Wood Sc Co., of Philadelphia. This producer of two hundred and 
fifty horse power capacity is known as a No.7 gas producer; To¬ 
gether with the producer were the usual economizer, scrubber, 
tar extractor, purifier, and holder. 

The engine installed was a three-cylinder vertical Westing- 
house gas engine with cylinders 19 inch diameter and 22 inch 
stroke, rated at 235 brake horse power on producer gas. The 
engine was belted to a six pole 175 kilowatt Westihghcuse dir¬ 
ect current generator. The load on the generator was con¬ 
trolled by and the energy developed dissipated through a 
water rheostat especially constructed for the purpose. 

Besides the above mentioned equipment there was the nec¬ 
essary supply of general apparatus, instruments, etc. ior carry¬ 
ing on the tests, and a small but well supplied chemical lab¬ 
oratory. 

In the early spring of 1905 the capacity of the plant was 
doubled by the installation of a second producer with its econ¬ 
omizer, so that the plant now consists of two independent pro¬ 
ducers both discharging into the same scrubber. These pro¬ 
ducers are worked independently, one being charged while the 















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other is in operation. By this arrangement no time is lost in 
changing from one coal to another at the end of any test, as 
a simple manipulation of valves brings the second producer into 
operation when the first is cut out. , 

There has recently been added a crude but effective piece 
of apparatus for extracting the moisture from the tar. By 
means of this device the moisture in the tar is reduced to a- 
bout 10 percent, and samples have been secured in which the 
percentage of ♦ moisture was as low as 3 percent. 

In order that an exact check may be had upon the brake 
horse power of the engine whenever desired, and in order that 
special brake tests may be made an Alden Absorption Dynamometer 
of 300 horse power capacity is now being installed in connect 
ion with the gas engine. 

Besides the general laborers 17 specially trained young 
men are at present employed for conducting the producer gas 
tests. 

Methods of conducting tests. 

In October 1904 the tests were begun on the basis of a 
total of 50 hours for each test. The plant was operated 10 
hours a day and then fires were banked for the night, the 
records being continued the next morning. ihis permitted one 
test a week only. With the small crew at command it seemed to 
"be the best possible arrangement and was continued lor the 
first two tests. It was then thought desirable to secure 
double the number of tests, and the schedule was arranged to 











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conduct two tests per weelc, each of 30 consecutive hours, al¬ 
lowing sufficient time between tests to make the necessary 
change of fuel and to enable the fuel bed in the producer to 
be brought to a proper working condition. 

As the determination of the amount of coal actually burned 
in the producer for any given period is, at best, a factor of 
more or less uncertainty, it was deemed necessary in renewing 
the work in May 1905 to make the test on each coal as long as 
consistent. A schedule was therefore adopted at that time in¬ 
volving two sixty-hour runs per week. The first 8 to 12 
hours of each test period are used for getting the fuel bed 
into uniform and efficient condition. During these prelimin¬ 
ary hours records are taken as in the regular tests, but the 
official test, as reported, includes only the last 48 to 50 
hours of the run, during which time the conditions are main¬ 
tained as uniform as possible. Special attention has been 
* 

directed to this very important measurement of the coal actual¬ 
ly used and special charts and checking devices have been in¬ 
troduced for this purpose. 

Observations and readings have been taken every 20 min¬ 
utes during these tests, as were also the calonnetric determin¬ 
ations from the gas, but in the majority of tests the gas analy- 
ses were made once every two hours. A double cneck sj'Soem has 
been maintained throughout all computations, thus assuring a 


high degree of accuracy. 

Owing to the lack of reliaDility in the operation ol the 







4 


gas efigine, many of the tests conducted during the Exposition 
period were of a few hours duration only, hut since the present 
series of tests began (May 1905) no difficulty has been ex¬ 
perienced in starting the engine at 8 a.m. Monday and contin¬ 
uing day and night without a stop until 8 a.m. Saturday. Dur¬ 
ing this period two different coals are tested and the change 
of gases is made at 8 p.m. Wednesday without stopping the 
engine. In order to establish beyond doubt the reliability 
of the gas producer and gas engine one test was carried far 
beyond the regular 60-hour schedule. This test was run for 562 
consecutive hours on the ordinary Illinois coal from the mine 
of the Donk Brothers Coal & Coke Co, at Troy, Ill. 

Number of Tests Made . 

During the period from October 1904 to February 1905, 
designated as the "Exposition Period", 24 producer-gas tests 
were made. Prom May 1, 1905 to December 31, 1905 there were 
64 producer-gas tests; and from January 1, 1906 to date (August 
6, 1906) there were 39:- a total of 127 producer-gas tests 

since beginning the work in 1904. 

The fuels upon which these tests were made came from the 

following sections of the country*. 

BITUMINOUS COAXS TESTED: 


Alabama 2 
Arkansas 1 
Illinois 29 
Indiana TI 
Indian Territory 2 
Iowa 1 
Kansas 3 









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WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE 


1st. It is assumed, that the Committee remembers that the 
equipment for work in the BOILER DIVISION * 1 consists of a - #210 
H.P. Heine water tube boiler, equipped with plain and shaking 
grates, forced draft and all the necessary appliances for reg¬ 
ular boiler resting. 

The tests therefore made have been ,r Euel Tests" and all 
Tests have been made under practically the same condition ex¬ 
cept that the rate of combustion has been varied enough to ob¬ 
tain capacity of boiler from 25 per cent below, to 25 percent 
above rated capacity. 

Any further explanation of equipment or methods of Testing 
will be explained orally by the Engineer in Charge. 

The number of Tests made under these boilers up to July 

t 

19th, 1906, was 391. The number of different coals tested were 
152. These samples having been furnished from 24 states. 
PUBLICATIONS . Two reports have been published. 

(a) Bulletin No,261 

(b) Bulletin No. 290 (Preliminary report of work 
of 1905) 


(c) Professional Paper No. 48. 

(d) Bulletin No.(4) Preliminary report Jan 1, July 

1, 1906. 

Manuscript has also been furnished by the Director for a 
special Bulletin entitled "Appliances for the economical burn- 











2 


ing of soft coal and x^or Smoke Prevention”, 

This Division is now preparing manuscript for a special 
Bulletin which might be called "A Beview of the St. Louis Fuel 
Tests under Boilers”. The Engineer in Charge, will, if de¬ 
sired, present at the meeting numerous charts and diagrams 
which have been prepared for the Bulletin* 

The work of this Special Bulletin is considered very im~ 
portant as it aims to make a careful analysis of the work comr 
pleted to July 1st, 1906. It also suggests the character of 
future investigations. As indicating the character of this 
Bulletin, there is given below an outline which shows what 
relations, rates, ratios and so forth have been studied or 
are contemplated for investigation. 

A REVIEW OF THE STh LOUIS FUEL TESTS UNDER BOILERS 
1st Graphic Representation of Important Relations from 
specially selected tests believed to be comparable. 

4 

RET. AT TO pT BETWEEN THE QUANTITIES INDICATED 3EL0W 

( Flue Gas Temperature 

( Combustion Chamber Tem- 

(a) Rate of Combustion perature. 

( Boiler Capacity 

( Boiler Efficiency (72) 

(b) Rate of Heat Evolution 

( Loss in Dry Stack Gases 
( Incomplete Combustion 

(c) Combustion Chamber Temperature 

( Unaccounted for Losses 

(Pounds of air per pound 
carbon 








































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BOILER DIVISION 


UNITED 

STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 


FUEL TESTS 


MATTERS PREPARED EOR PRESENTATION 

at the 

HEW YORK CONFERENCE OP AUGUST 10th - 11th, 1906 

hy the 

ENGINEER IN CHARGE OP THE BOILER DIVISION 
(L. P. Breckenridge) 

(REVISED IK ACCORDANCE WITH ACTION AT ABOVE MEETING) 

AUGUST 7, 1906 












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. A ft. 

















UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 


BOILER DIVISION 


EUEL TESTS 


The following matters are prepared for presentation and 
discussion at the Conference of August 10th - 11th at the 
"Oriental Hotel", Manhattan Beach. 


There are two important things to be presented 
1st - What has already been done. 

2nd - Some suggestions for future work. 




















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5 


COAL 

Remarks on character of "volatile matter". "Water of 
composition" - that there is strictly no such thing 
as either volatile matter or, fixed "Carbon". The 
hypothetical molecule of coal. The true combustible. 
What is smoke due to. - Why is coal long flaming? 

Failure to find relation between smoke and fo Carbon 
Hydrogen ratio and smoke, etc. 

High combustion chamber temperature - its effect on fe 
efficiency of boiler - on furnace efficiency - on over 
all efficiency - on capacity. 

High combustion chamber temperature and the loss due 
to imperfect combustion. The unaccounted for and its 
increase with the rise of combustion chamber temperature. 
Lise in furnace wall temperature with the rise of com¬ 
bustion chamber temperature and the increase of rate 
of combustion. Incomplete combustion due to high com¬ 
bustion chamber temperature. 

Vant Hoffs principle of mobile equilibrium applied 
to boiler furnace. The equilibrium of Chemical Ac¬ 
tivity of mixtures of combustibles and their products 
at various temperatures from Duhem's Thermodynamics 
and chemistry - its application to furnace gases at 
high temperature. Hypothetical curves of chemical 
activity of various elements plotted on temperature 
base. 

The theory of heat transmission. H-n (t-t ? ) n is the 
number of molecules hitting the transmitting sur¬ 
face (t-t 9 ) the excess of temperature of the gases 
over the water in boiler; derivation of equation, for 

true "thermodynamic efficiency Er l-c* - —- . 

Is it well to strive for high temperatures to get 
high boiler efficiency? The variables which should 
be increased to get high capacity. 

H - wv(T-t) r heat per second per unit area. 

(1) When T is constant E can be increased by increas¬ 
ing V. 

(a) by making gas passages smaller 

(b) By burning more coal and make more hot gases. 

(2) H can be made larger by increasing (T-t). 
w- CT v“ CT 

Theoretical temperatures by burning different fuels with 
different amounts of air, and the heat available 






6 


for steam boiler. Plotted charts. 

Average of high T in furnace. 

la) Increase in "boiler efficiency. 

(b) Increase in capacity. 

Disadvantage of high T in furnace. 

(a) Deterioration of furnace. 

Cb) Loss in incomplete combustion. 

(c) Increased furnace radiation 

Advantage of high T or steam. 

Gain in "boiler efficiency "by dropping steam pressure 
show curves. The use of low steam pressure and high 
superheating steam turbines. 

Disadvantage of high T of steam. 

Importance of water circulation in boiler. 

Actual measurement of 7/ater circulation in Heine - 
boiler, variation in circulation. Relation between 
water circulation and capacity 

Goal (Effect of size of coal on the performance of 

(out-fit. 

(Effects of moisture on the performance of out- 
Ash (fit; Voids - Friability - Washed coal, dry 

and wet Briquetted Coal. 

Ash Ash and its effects on performance percentage 

of iron in ash sulphur r ? 

ask 

Failure of draw conclusions from comparisons of 
clinkering in Gas Producer and furnace. 

Miscellaneous. 

Cross sectional areas of gas streams with accompanying 
velocities, talcing temperature into account. 

(a) without leakage 

(b) with leakage. 

Time required for gases to travel from fuel 
bed to top of stack. 

Description of Wanner optical pyrometer and its manipula¬ 
tion. 


The thermo-electric couple and the experience with 

it. Failure of Jona hard glass to stand heat of 













3 


(d) Combustion Chamber Temperature( The Gas Analysis 


(e) Code Boiler Efficiency (72) 

(f) Fixed Carbon in Coal 

(g) Average Diameter of Coal 

(h) Ash in the Coal 

(i) Moisture in the Coal 


(j) Temperature variation in 


( Combustion Chamber Tem¬ 
peratures . 

I Flue Gas Temperatures 

Pounds of Air per pound 
of Carbon. 

( C0 2 - CO - 0 

( Combustion Chamber Tem¬ 
peratures 

( Flue Gas Temperatures 

(Boiler Efficiency 

( Pounds of Air per Pound 
of Carbon 

(Boiler Capacity 


( Fuel Bed 

( Over Fire 

( Over Bridge Wall 

( Base of Baffle Wall 

( Combustion Chamber 


(k) Combustion Chamber Temp* by 


( Optical Pyrometer 

4 

( and 

( Stream Water from Gas 
Sampler 


PROCESS OF COMBUSTIOH IN A BOILER FURNACE 


(Includes explanation of methods used, points out reasons for 
some failures, - suggests improved methods, etc., etc.) 

The Furnace - its function 


The boiler - its functions 










4 


The efficiency of furnace ) 

The^ eff ic iency of boiler ) Commonly used efficiency. 
Combined efficiency ) 


The efficiency of furnace ) 

The efficiency of boiler ) Thermodynamic efficiency 

Combined efficiency ) 

Other efficiencies. 

The parts of the furnace and their function. 

The progress of combustion from grate to stack. 

Table of furnace gas analyses of samples collected at the 
top of the fuel bed, rear of combustion chamber, at 
the base of the stack. 

Discussion of the analyses. 

The baffling wall - its objects - its effect on combustion. 

Table of temperatures of fuel bed, over fire, above 
bridge wall, at the base of baffling wall, and 
in the rear of combustion chamber. 

Same as above as affected by changes in combustion per sq.ft, 
grate. 

Rise of flue temperature when gas mixing wall fails. 

Charts showing variation of fuel bed, over fire and com¬ 
bustion chamber temperature. 

Discussion giving reason for the variation. Comparisons 
of temperature of combustion chamber as read by 
optical pyrometer, with stream of water from water 
jacketed gas sampler. 

How temperature readings were taken. 

How the optical pyrometer agreed with the Thermo-electric 
couple. 

How the "volatile matter" of coal affects the temperature 
in combustion chamber. 









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9 


4th Construct a special "Long Combustion Chamber Eur- 

aac e > equipped with chain grate stoker and connected to some 
one of the boilers. 

Tiiis special furnace is advised for research work on the 
fundamental principles of combustion. 100 tests of coal should 
oe made with this furnace. It should have a controlled air sup¬ 
ply. In this furnace should be studied the effect on combustion 
of - 

(a) Uniformity of size and mixture of sizes 

(b) (The percentage of free moisture 

(c) Increasing percentage of slagging and non-slagging 

ashes. 

(d) Washed and unwashed coals 

(e) Effect on temperature and complete chemical union 

of thick and thin fuel beds. 

(f) Methods of mixing gases 

(g) Dilution of air supply with waste gases 

5th. Arrange for conducting certain fuel tests A at the 
plants of private firms or experiment stations having facili¬ 
ties for carrying on tests not possessed by the central plant. 
Work of this kind should be definite as to purpose and should 
be conducted in a manner approved by the Survey. 

Arrange for such "expert field work" as may be desirable. 
This work should include 

(a) The determination of the conditions of operation of 
many large typical power plants with various coals. 

(b) A study of the smoke problem with municipalities or 
corporations desiring to cooperate with the Survey. 































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(c) Making of tests on some special appliances or fuels, 
(ct) Tests oi special fuels on locomotives, 
ctli. Devise and have constructed specially accurate apparatus 
for determining hydro-cardon losses. This is an important 
problem and may be a large one. Its solution would have ap¬ 
plication not only in boiler furnaces but in the gas producer 
and gas engine and all metallurgical furnaces. 

Also devise such other special compliances and instruments 
of precision as may be possible. 


QTJE 


STIO. 


r Q 


SUBMITTED WITHOUT RECOMMENDATIONS. 


1. What are your criticisms on Part II of publication known 

as "Professional Paper no. IS 77 ? 

(Omit observed data; appoint Publication Committee). 

2. Is the matter published in the "Preliminary Reports" re¬ 

lating to the steaming tests sufficient? 

(ITo time for discussion) . 

3. Should a locomotive type of boiler be installed at the Cen¬ 

tral Plant? What should be its type and capacity. 

(Hot this year). 

4. Should experiments be made with pulverized fuel this year? 

(hot feasible; perhaps prepare bulletin). 

5. What should be the length of tests? 

(a) When hand fired - 10 hours 

(b) When stoker-rfired - 10 hours. 

6. Should reports be submitted in any other system of units 

than the English? 

(Hot at present). 


oOo 









7 




combustion chamber. 

Water jacketed has sampled and thermo-couple. 

Miscellaneous. 

reasons for discarding the code multitubular sampler. 

Calibration kinks. 

Cnaracteristi c of German silver 2 cu. couple. 

Orsat analysis , totals. 

P ata on gas separation . 

Escape of hydrogen and some h^rdrocarbons through rubber 
tubing; experiments in drawing a large and a 
small quantity of gas simultaneously through a 
water jacketed sampler having two gas tubes. 

2 SUGGESTIONS EOR FUTURE WORK . 

To the specialist in the various branches of steam en¬ 
gineering, many seeminglyv aluable lines of research will doubt’ 
less suggest themselves in connection with the burning of coal 
in boiler furnaces. It should, however, never be forgotten 
that there are certain fundamental principles applying to this 
subject and that while some further routine work may be de¬ 
sirable, a considerable amount of our energies should, in the 
future be devoted to the former kind of research. 

The following matters are submitted by the Superintendent 
of this Division as suitable for our immediate consideration:- 
REC OMMEI'EDAT I ONS : 

1st - That one of the present Heine boilers be reset 

with plain hand fired furnace so as to maintain the same gen¬ 
eral ratios as at present, and reserved for such routine tests 



















8 


of fuel as it may be deemed, advisable to make, thus making past 
and future routine tests comparable. 

2nd - That one of the Heine boilers be reset on new 
designs (now being prepared) so as to include several seemingly 
valuable new features, also profiling for several easy changes 
in ratios and furnace construction and baffling evidently de¬ 
sirable in connection with the economic burning of various kincb 
of coal. This includes provision for the use of stokers under 
this boiler as well as air tight setting. 

3rd - Arrange for and set another type of water tube 

boiler (I should suggest first a B. & W .) 

Plan the setting of this boiler with the following special 
features: 

(a) Air tight setting. 

(b) Boiler set high 

(c) Removable furnace, - this means variable grate 
area and height; also stoker facilities. 

(d) Independently supported stack. 

(e) Controlled draft 

(f) Capacity 250 H.P. (2500 sq.ft.heating surface) 

(g) Side observation door. 

Use this boiler for experiments planned to determine proper 
ratios and dimensions of furnaces for the various represent¬ 
ative coals when burned under this type of boiler at varying 
rates of combustion. A boiler thus set would oe available 
for a vast amount of research work. 



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Average equivalent coal as fired per E.H.P. developed - 1.69 

" " lignite." " " " " - - - 3.04 

" " Florida peat " " " »" - - - 3.03 

Average equivalent dry coal per E.H.P.developed - - - - 1.56 

" " " lignite" " "- 2.22 

" " Florida peat" " " - 2.39 

Ratio of total per E.H.P. (under "boiler) to total coal - 

per E.H.P. (in Producer) equals ---------- 2.8 

Ratio of total lignite per E.H.P. (under "boiler) to to¬ 
tal lignite per E.H.P. (in Producer) equals - - - 2.4 

Ratio of total Florida peat per E.H.P. (under "boiler) to 

total Florida peat per E.H.P. (In producer) equals - 2.3 

Lbs.mixture of tar, water, soot, etc., delivered by tar 


extractor per ton of coal ------------- 152 

Lbs.mix of tar, water, soot, etc., delivered by tar 

extractor per ton of lignite ----------- 204 

Lbs. mixture of tar, water, soot, etc. delivered by tar 

extractor per ton of Florida Peat- --------- 157 

Average sulphur in coals tested - -- -- -- -- -- - 2.21/S 

" " " lignites " ------------ 0.57/fc 

*» w «« Florida peat tested- - -- -- -- - 0.45/b 


AVERAGE OF GAS ANALYSES. 


Carbon dioxide, (CO^) 
Oxygen, (0^) 

Ethylene, 

Carbon monoxide,(CO) 
Hydrogen, (H^) 
Methane, (CH^) 
Nitrogen, (Ng) 


Coals. 

Lignites 

Florida Peat. 

10.0 

11.8 

12.4 

0.0 

0.0 

0.0 

.5 

0.0 

.4 

19.2 

17.1 

21.0 

14.9 

14.3 

18.5 

2.1 

3.0 

2.2 

53.3 

10(575 

53.8 

lOOTtf 

45.5 

' lOTTTCT 


























5 


BITUMINOUS COALS TESTED (Continued) 


Kentucky 5 

Missouri 1 

New Mexico 3 

Ohio 7 

Pennsylvania 7 

Tennessee 9 

Utah 1 

Virginia 4 

Washington 2 

West Virginia 11 

Wyoming 5 

Total 


LIGNITES TESTED: 


Arkansas 1 

--California 1 

Colorado 1 

Montana 1 

North Dakota 4 

Texas 4 

Washington 2 

Wyoming 1 

Total 


MISCELLANEOUS DUELS TESTED 


Ark. Semi-anthracite 1 
Brazil 1 

California lignite and 
locomotive cinders2 
Coke Breese 1 

Florida Peat 1 

Massachusetts peat 1 
Rhode Island Graphite 1 
Total 


Grand Total 


104 


15 


8 

127 


Reports Published . 

Early in 1905 a preliminary report of the results of the 
producer gas tests made during the fall of 1904 was published 
as a part of Bulletin No.261, issued by the United States Geo¬ 
logical Survey. The detailed report of this ' *work was for¬ 
warded to Washington April 1, 1905, and was published in April 





































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6 


1906 as a part of Professional Paper 3Jo. 48. 

Preliminary reports of the results obtained from Hay 1, 
1905 to December 31, 1905, and from January 1, 1906 to July 1, 
1906, were submitted for publication immediately upon comple¬ 
tion of the work covering these periods. 

Special features of the Investigations 

The results of the majority of the tests have been exceed¬ 
ingly gratifying, official records having been made as low as 
0»95 pounds of dry coal per hour burned in the producer per 
electrical horse power developed at the switchboard; or 0.80 
pounds of dry coal per hour burned in the producer per brake 
horse power, on the basis of an assumed efficiency of 85 per¬ 
cent for generator and belt. 

Throughout the tests a constant effort has been made to do 
away with unnecessary appliances. This effort has furnished 
valuable and interesting information and has centered atten¬ 
tion on several radical changes in the details of producer gas 
plant construction. 

It developed at an early date that more or less sulphur 
was passing the purifier and entering the engine cylinders. 
Investigations by the chemists showed that purifiers consist¬ 
ing of oxidized- iron fillings and shavings were fairly effi¬ 
cient for coals* containing little sulphur - 1 percent or less; 
but it was found that for coals containing larger percentages 
of sulphur the purifier was exhausted after about 6 or 8 hours. 
Mixtures of lime and shavings wefe tried, but with little sue- 











7 


cess. As a result of these investigations the purifier has 
"been discarded and the gas, carrying its full percentage of 
sulphur has "been charged directly into the engine cylinders. 
This method of operating has "been going on practically all the 
time since the installation of the plant and no ill effects 
have been discovered, although coal has been used which runs 
as high as 8.1 percent sulphur. 

One feature of the plant as installed was the economizer, 
used for pre-heating the air of the blast. A series of experi¬ 
ments has shcnyh no effect upon the chemical composition of the 
gas, or upon the efficiency of the plant when air at ordinary 
atmospheric temperature was substituted for pre-heated air. 

As a result the economizer, as an economizer, has been dis¬ 
carded, and the construction of the plant again simplified. 

General Summary 

The figures presented below have been compiled from the 
tests made during the period January 1, 1506 - July 1, 1906, 
and represent fair average value. 

In presenting this very brief summary it has seemed de¬ 
sirable to compile the data in such form that a direct com¬ 
parison may be made between the different types of fuel used. 
The fuels have, therefore, been divided into bituminous coal, 
lignite, and peat. The results from peat are however con¬ 
fined to those obtained from the single test on Florida Peat. 
This has been necessary on account of the fact that the amount 
of Massachusetts peat furnished was not sufficiently large to 







8 


allov; the producer to "be properly charged with this fuel and 
the under fuel "bed was therefore built up of Illinois Coal, 
thus making it impossible to give exact figures for Massachu¬ 
setts peat. The figures given for peat might possibly be some¬ 
what modified if they were made up of an average of the re¬ 
sults secured from several tests of peat from various sec¬ 
tions of the country. 

The, fixtures given for the mixture of tar, water, soot, 
etc. delivered by the tar extractor per ton of coal are very 
rough. Slight changes in the method used in operating the 
plant will vary these figures considerably, although the re¬ 
sults given represent fair average value. 


Average B.T.U. per lb. of coal as fired ------- 

h » h » lignite " ------- 

'• '* n Florida Peat " - -- -- -- 

* 

Average B.T.U. per lb. of dry cocfl- --------- 

m * »« h h u Lignite- -------- 

m ii m m rt n Florida Peat ------ 

Average B.T.U. per cu.ft.of gas from coal ------ 

h « » « » ,f H Lignite- - - - - 

M H »» « 11 " ” Florida Peat- - - 

Average cu.ft.of gas per lb. of coll as fired - - - - 
ti « « •* « »' n Lignite as fired- - - 

it ii « ii ii H «i Peat as f ired(Florida) 

Average cu.ft. of gas per lb. of dry coal ------ 

h it ii it ii m » » Lignite- - - - - 

n ii «i i» •» , •» M n Florida Peat - - 

Average lb. coal as fired per sq.ft, fuel oed - - - 

" » Lignite " " " n " " - 

M M Florida peat” " M " " 

Average lb. of dry coal per sq.ft, ot iuel bed - - - - 

it * « " lignite" M M M » - - - - 

» w " M Florida peat, " " '»---- 


- 12,040 

- 8,555 

- 8,127 

- 12,900 

- 11,505 

- 10,289 

- 153.9 

- 155.0 

- 175.-2 

60.4 

32.7 

38.3 

64.6 

44.2 

38.3 

7.6 
12.1 
15.>2 

7.0 

8.9 

12.0 






















10 


Some of the Problems Proposed for Future Investigations. 

Up to the present time the work of the Gas Producer Di¬ 
vision of the Duel Testing Plant lias of necessity been confined 
to the routine testing of coals, lignites, and peats from the 
different fields. Per the most part the work has been con¬ 
fined to a single test of each particular fuel supplied. Al¬ 
though these routine tests have shown clearly the possibility 
of using these fuels for pewer purposes in the pressure pro¬ 
ducer plant, no opportunity has offered fer investigating many 
of the most important problems connected with producer work. 

As soon as the few remaining coal fields have been included in 
the present work of the plant it seems desirable to devote a 
large amount of time to a series of tests upon each of a few 
"representative coals" to determine 

(1) The conditions under which different bituminous 
coals, lignites, and peats may be used most efficiently in gas 
producers. The greater portion of this work can be and un¬ 
doubtedly ought to be carried on with the present equipment 

as the comparative results will be of greater value than if 
the work is all done in a new plant 

Briefly stated other pr-'blems demanding attention are 

(2) The use in the engine of the gas direct from the 
generator with its full charge of tar; or the fixing of the tar 
and other hydro-carbons as availaole gases in tne producer gas 
for power purposes. 

(3) The use of slack coals in the gas producer and the 




11 


value of the sizing of lump coals for producer purposes. 

(4) Possible improvements in the producer equipment and 
engine, whicn would increase the efficiency of various coals 
used. 


(5) The use ot sage brush, wood, etc. in the gas 

producer. Many of the points suggested in (2) (3) and (4) 
and (5) and possibly some parts of (l) will necessitate the 
installation of one or more producers which operate on a dif¬ 
ferent basqs from those now in use at the plant. 

(6) Utilization of blast furnace gases and gases from 
coke ovens for power purposes. 

Since the recent action of Congress in removing the 
tax on denatured alcohol for commercial purposes an important 
line of investigation is open to this division of the Testing 
Plant i.e. 

(7) The relative fuel values of alcohol and gasolines. 

The investigations indicated in (7) will probably necess¬ 
itate the installation of one or more special engines. 























































































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